diff --git a/Documentation/dmaengine/provider.txt b/Documentation/dmaengine/provider.txt
index 05d2280190f1..ca67b0f04c6e 100644
--- a/Documentation/dmaengine/provider.txt
+++ b/Documentation/dmaengine/provider.txt
@@ -345,11 +345,12 @@ where to put them)
       that abstracts it away.
 
   * DMA_CTRL_ACK
-    - Undocumented feature
-    - No one really has an idea of what it's about, besides being
-      related to reusing the DMA transaction descriptors or having
-      additional transactions added to it in the async-tx API
-    - Useless in the case of the slave API
+    - If set, the transfer can be reused after being completed.
+    - There is a guarantee the transfer won't be freed until it is acked
+      by async_tx_ack().
+    - As a consequence, if a device driver wants to skip the dma_map_sg() and
+      dma_unmap_sg() in between 2 transfers, because the DMA'd data wasn't used,
+      it can resubmit the transfer right after its completion.
 
 General Design Notes
 --------------------
diff --git a/drivers/dma/virt-dma.c b/drivers/dma/virt-dma.c
index 6f80432a3f0a..7d2c17d8d30f 100644
--- a/drivers/dma/virt-dma.c
+++ b/drivers/dma/virt-dma.c
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ dma_cookie_t vchan_tx_submit(struct dma_async_tx_descriptor *tx)
 	spin_lock_irqsave(&vc->lock, flags);
 	cookie = dma_cookie_assign(tx);
 
-	list_add_tail(&vd->node, &vc->desc_submitted);
+	list_move_tail(&vd->node, &vc->desc_submitted);
 	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&vc->lock, flags);
 
 	dev_dbg(vc->chan.device->dev, "vchan %p: txd %p[%x]: submitted\n",
@@ -83,8 +83,10 @@ static void vchan_complete(unsigned long arg)
 		cb_data = vd->tx.callback_param;
 
 		list_del(&vd->node);
-
-		vc->desc_free(vd);
+		if (async_tx_test_ack(&vd->tx))
+			list_add(&vd->node, &vc->desc_allocated);
+		else
+			vc->desc_free(vd);
 
 		if (cb)
 			cb(cb_data);
@@ -96,9 +98,13 @@ void vchan_dma_desc_free_list(struct virt_dma_chan *vc, struct list_head *head)
 	while (!list_empty(head)) {
 		struct virt_dma_desc *vd = list_first_entry(head,
 			struct virt_dma_desc, node);
-		list_del(&vd->node);
-		dev_dbg(vc->chan.device->dev, "txd %p: freeing\n", vd);
-		vc->desc_free(vd);
+		if (async_tx_test_ack(&vd->tx)) {
+			list_move_tail(&vd->node, &vc->desc_allocated);
+		} else {
+			dev_dbg(vc->chan.device->dev, "txd %p: freeing\n", vd);
+			list_del(&vd->node);
+			vc->desc_free(vd);
+		}
 	}
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(vchan_dma_desc_free_list);
@@ -108,6 +114,7 @@ void vchan_init(struct virt_dma_chan *vc, struct dma_device *dmadev)
 	dma_cookie_init(&vc->chan);
 
 	spin_lock_init(&vc->lock);
+	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&vc->desc_allocated);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&vc->desc_submitted);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&vc->desc_issued);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&vc->desc_completed);
diff --git a/drivers/dma/virt-dma.h b/drivers/dma/virt-dma.h
index 181b95267866..189e75dbcb15 100644
--- a/drivers/dma/virt-dma.h
+++ b/drivers/dma/virt-dma.h
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ struct virt_dma_chan {
 	spinlock_t lock;
 
 	/* protected by vc.lock */
+	struct list_head desc_allocated;
 	struct list_head desc_submitted;
 	struct list_head desc_issued;
 	struct list_head desc_completed;
@@ -55,11 +56,16 @@ static inline struct dma_async_tx_descriptor *vchan_tx_prep(struct virt_dma_chan
 	struct virt_dma_desc *vd, unsigned long tx_flags)
 {
 	extern dma_cookie_t vchan_tx_submit(struct dma_async_tx_descriptor *);
+	unsigned long flags;
 
 	dma_async_tx_descriptor_init(&vd->tx, &vc->chan);
 	vd->tx.flags = tx_flags;
 	vd->tx.tx_submit = vchan_tx_submit;
 
+	spin_lock_irqsave(&vc->lock, flags);
+	list_add_tail(&vd->node, &vc->desc_allocated);
+	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&vc->lock, flags);
+
 	return &vd->tx;
 }
 
@@ -122,7 +128,8 @@ static inline struct virt_dma_desc *vchan_next_desc(struct virt_dma_chan *vc)
 }
 
 /**
- * vchan_get_all_descriptors - obtain all submitted and issued descriptors
+ * vchan_get_all_descriptors - obtain all allocated, submitted and issued
+ *                             descriptors
  * vc: virtual channel to get descriptors from
  * head: list of descriptors found
  *
@@ -134,6 +141,7 @@ static inline struct virt_dma_desc *vchan_next_desc(struct virt_dma_chan *vc)
 static inline void vchan_get_all_descriptors(struct virt_dma_chan *vc,
 	struct list_head *head)
 {
+	list_splice_tail_init(&vc->desc_allocated, head);
 	list_splice_tail_init(&vc->desc_submitted, head);
 	list_splice_tail_init(&vc->desc_issued, head);
 	list_splice_tail_init(&vc->desc_completed, head);
@@ -141,11 +149,14 @@ static inline void vchan_get_all_descriptors(struct virt_dma_chan *vc,
 
 static inline void vchan_free_chan_resources(struct virt_dma_chan *vc)
 {
+	struct virt_dma_desc *vd;
 	unsigned long flags;
 	LIST_HEAD(head);
 
 	spin_lock_irqsave(&vc->lock, flags);
 	vchan_get_all_descriptors(vc, &head);
+	list_for_each_entry(vd, &head, node)
+		async_tx_clear_ack(&vd->tx);
 	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&vc->lock, flags);
 
 	vchan_dma_desc_free_list(vc, &head);
diff --git a/include/linux/dmaengine.h b/include/linux/dmaengine.h
index 19face3168b4..5d99229c2f95 100644
--- a/include/linux/dmaengine.h
+++ b/include/linux/dmaengine.h
@@ -123,10 +123,18 @@ enum dma_transfer_direction {
  *	 chunk and before first src/dst address for next chunk.
  *	 Ignored for dst(assumed 0), if dst_inc is true and dst_sgl is false.
  *	 Ignored for src(assumed 0), if src_inc is true and src_sgl is false.
+ * @dst_icg: Number of bytes to jump after last dst address of this
+ *	 chunk and before the first dst address for next chunk.
+ *	 Ignored if dst_inc is true and dst_sgl is false.
+ * @src_icg: Number of bytes to jump after last src address of this
+ *	 chunk and before the first src address for next chunk.
+ *	 Ignored if src_inc is true and src_sgl is false.
  */
 struct data_chunk {
 	size_t size;
 	size_t icg;
+	size_t dst_icg;
+	size_t src_icg;
 };
 
 /**