diff --git a/module/zfs/zpl_file.c b/module/zfs/zpl_file.c
index fc2b81329..c2e3a6bdc 100644
--- a/module/zfs/zpl_file.c
+++ b/module/zfs/zpl_file.c
@@ -354,7 +354,16 @@ zpl_putpage(struct page *pp, struct writeback_control *wbc, void *data)
 {
 	int error;
 
+	/*
+	 * Disable the normal reclaim path for zpl_putpage().  This
+	 * ensures that all memory allocations under this call path
+	 * will never enter direct reclaim.  If this were to happen
+	 * the VM might try to write out additional pages by calling
+	 * zpl_putpage() again resulting in a deadlock.
+	 */
+	current->flags |= PF_MEMALLOC;
 	error = -zfs_putpage(pp, wbc, data);
+	current->flags &= ~PF_MEMALLOC;
 
 	if (error) {
 		SetPageError(pp);