diff --git a/net/sunrpc/rpc_pipe.c b/net/sunrpc/rpc_pipe.c
index e7ce4b3eb0bd..a816b3a69059 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/rpc_pipe.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/rpc_pipe.c
@@ -667,7 +667,8 @@ static struct dentry *__rpc_lookup_create_exclusive(struct dentry *parent,
 			return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
 	}
 	if (dentry->d_inode == NULL) {
-		d_set_d_op(dentry, &rpc_dentry_operations);
+		if (!dentry->d_op)
+			d_set_d_op(dentry, &rpc_dentry_operations);
 		return dentry;
 	}
 	dput(dentry);