diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.c
index 990210fcb9c3..d78c853265d4 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.c
@@ -368,6 +368,11 @@ xfs_iget_cache_hit(
 	if (ip->i_flags & XFS_IRECLAIMABLE) {
 		trace_xfs_iget_reclaim(ip);
 
+		if (flags & XFS_IGET_INCORE) {
+			error = -EAGAIN;
+			goto out_error;
+		}
+
 		/*
 		 * We need to set XFS_IRECLAIM to prevent xfs_reclaim_inode
 		 * from stomping over us while we recycle the inode.  We can't
@@ -432,7 +437,8 @@ xfs_iget_cache_hit(
 	if (lock_flags != 0)
 		xfs_ilock(ip, lock_flags);
 
-	xfs_iflags_clear(ip, XFS_ISTALE | XFS_IDONTCACHE);
+	if (!(flags & XFS_IGET_INCORE))
+		xfs_iflags_clear(ip, XFS_ISTALE | XFS_IDONTCACHE);
 	XFS_STATS_INC(mp, xs_ig_found);
 
 	return 0;
@@ -603,6 +609,10 @@ again:
 			goto out_error_or_again;
 	} else {
 		rcu_read_unlock();
+		if (flags & XFS_IGET_INCORE) {
+			error = -ENOENT;
+			goto out_error_or_again;
+		}
 		XFS_STATS_INC(mp, xs_ig_missed);
 
 		error = xfs_iget_cache_miss(mp, pag, tp, ino, &ip,
@@ -623,7 +633,7 @@ again:
 	return 0;
 
 out_error_or_again:
-	if (error == -EAGAIN) {
+	if (!(flags & XFS_IGET_INCORE) && error == -EAGAIN) {
 		delay(1);
 		goto again;
 	}
@@ -631,6 +641,44 @@ out_error_or_again:
 	return error;
 }
 
+/*
+ * "Is this a cached inode that's also allocated?"
+ *
+ * Look up an inode by number in the given file system.  If the inode is
+ * in cache and isn't in purgatory, return 1 if the inode is allocated
+ * and 0 if it is not.  For all other cases (not in cache, being torn
+ * down, etc.), return a negative error code.
+ *
+ * The caller has to prevent inode allocation and freeing activity,
+ * presumably by locking the AGI buffer.   This is to ensure that an
+ * inode cannot transition from allocated to freed until the caller is
+ * ready to allow that.  If the inode is in an intermediate state (new,
+ * reclaimable, or being reclaimed), -EAGAIN will be returned; if the
+ * inode is not in the cache, -ENOENT will be returned.  The caller must
+ * deal with these scenarios appropriately.
+ *
+ * This is a specialized use case for the online scrubber; if you're
+ * reading this, you probably want xfs_iget.
+ */
+int
+xfs_icache_inode_is_allocated(
+	struct xfs_mount	*mp,
+	struct xfs_trans	*tp,
+	xfs_ino_t		ino,
+	bool			*inuse)
+{
+	struct xfs_inode	*ip;
+	int			error;
+
+	error = xfs_iget(mp, tp, ino, XFS_IGET_INCORE, 0, &ip);
+	if (error)
+		return error;
+
+	*inuse = !!(VFS_I(ip)->i_mode);
+	IRELE(ip);
+	return 0;
+}
+
 /*
  * The inode lookup is done in batches to keep the amount of lock traffic and
  * radix tree lookups to a minimum. The batch size is a trade off between
diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.h b/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.h
index 9183f77958ef..bff4d85e5498 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.h
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.h
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ struct xfs_eofblocks {
 #define XFS_IGET_CREATE		0x1
 #define XFS_IGET_UNTRUSTED	0x2
 #define XFS_IGET_DONTCACHE	0x4
+#define XFS_IGET_INCORE		0x8	/* don't read from disk or reinit */
 
 /*
  * flags for AG inode iterator
@@ -126,4 +127,7 @@ xfs_fs_eofblocks_from_user(
 	return 0;
 }
 
+int xfs_icache_inode_is_allocated(struct xfs_mount *mp, struct xfs_trans *tp,
+				  xfs_ino_t ino, bool *inuse);
+
 #endif