diff --git a/fs/libfs.c b/fs/libfs.c
index 082bacf0b9e6..d546f3f0c036 100644
--- a/fs/libfs.c
+++ b/fs/libfs.c
@@ -239,9 +239,15 @@ const struct inode_operations simple_dir_inode_operations = {
 };
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(simple_dir_inode_operations);
 
-/* 0 is '.', 1 is '..', so always start with offset 2 or more */
+/* simple_offset_add() never assigns these to a dentry */
 enum {
-	DIR_OFFSET_MIN	= 2,
+	DIR_OFFSET_EOD		= S32_MAX,
+};
+
+/* simple_offset_add() allocation range */
+enum {
+	DIR_OFFSET_MIN		= 2,
+	DIR_OFFSET_MAX		= DIR_OFFSET_EOD - 1,
 };
 
 static void offset_set(struct dentry *dentry, u32 offset)
@@ -278,7 +284,8 @@ void simple_offset_init(struct offset_ctx *octx)
  */
 int simple_offset_add(struct offset_ctx *octx, struct dentry *dentry)
 {
-	static const struct xa_limit limit = XA_LIMIT(DIR_OFFSET_MIN, U32_MAX);
+	static const struct xa_limit limit = XA_LIMIT(DIR_OFFSET_MIN,
+						      DIR_OFFSET_MAX);
 	u32 offset;
 	int ret;
 
@@ -442,8 +449,6 @@ static loff_t offset_dir_llseek(struct file *file, loff_t offset, int whence)
 		return -EINVAL;
 	}
 
-	/* In this case, ->private_data is protected by f_pos_lock */
-	file->private_data = NULL;
 	return vfs_setpos(file, offset, U32_MAX);
 }
 
@@ -453,7 +458,7 @@ static struct dentry *offset_find_next(struct offset_ctx *octx, loff_t offset)
 	XA_STATE(xas, &octx->xa, offset);
 
 	rcu_read_lock();
-	child = xas_next_entry(&xas, U32_MAX);
+	child = xas_next_entry(&xas, DIR_OFFSET_MAX);
 	if (!child)
 		goto out;
 	spin_lock(&child->d_lock);
@@ -474,7 +479,7 @@ static bool offset_dir_emit(struct dir_context *ctx, struct dentry *dentry)
 			  inode->i_ino, fs_umode_to_dtype(inode->i_mode));
 }
 
-static void *offset_iterate_dir(struct inode *inode, struct dir_context *ctx)
+static void offset_iterate_dir(struct inode *inode, struct dir_context *ctx)
 {
 	struct offset_ctx *octx = inode->i_op->get_offset_ctx(inode);
 	struct dentry *dentry;
@@ -482,7 +487,7 @@ static void *offset_iterate_dir(struct inode *inode, struct dir_context *ctx)
 	while (true) {
 		dentry = offset_find_next(octx, ctx->pos);
 		if (!dentry)
-			return ERR_PTR(-ENOENT);
+			goto out_eod;
 
 		if (!offset_dir_emit(ctx, dentry)) {
 			dput(dentry);
@@ -492,7 +497,10 @@ static void *offset_iterate_dir(struct inode *inode, struct dir_context *ctx)
 		ctx->pos = dentry2offset(dentry) + 1;
 		dput(dentry);
 	}
-	return NULL;
+	return;
+
+out_eod:
+	ctx->pos = DIR_OFFSET_EOD;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -512,6 +520,8 @@ static void *offset_iterate_dir(struct inode *inode, struct dir_context *ctx)
  *
  * On return, @ctx->pos contains an offset that will read the next entry
  * in this directory when offset_readdir() is called again with @ctx.
+ * Caller places this value in the d_off field of the last entry in the
+ * user's buffer.
  *
  * Return values:
  *   %0 - Complete
@@ -524,13 +534,8 @@ static int offset_readdir(struct file *file, struct dir_context *ctx)
 
 	if (!dir_emit_dots(file, ctx))
 		return 0;
-
-	/* In this case, ->private_data is protected by f_pos_lock */
-	if (ctx->pos == DIR_OFFSET_MIN)
-		file->private_data = NULL;
-	else if (file->private_data == ERR_PTR(-ENOENT))
-		return 0;
-	file->private_data = offset_iterate_dir(d_inode(dir), ctx);
+	if (ctx->pos != DIR_OFFSET_EOD)
+		offset_iterate_dir(d_inode(dir), ctx);
 	return 0;
 }