diff --git a/fs/configfs/dir.c b/fs/configfs/dir.c
index 362b6ff9b908..cd65a69765ea 100644
--- a/fs/configfs/dir.c
+++ b/fs/configfs/dir.c
@@ -501,8 +501,7 @@ static struct dentry * configfs_lookup(struct inode *dir,
 	}
 	spin_unlock(&configfs_dirent_lock);
 done:
-	d_add(dentry, inode);
-	return NULL;
+	return d_splice_alias(inode, dentry);
 }
 
 /*