diff --git a/include/linux/sunrpc/xdrgen/_defs.h b/include/linux/sunrpc/xdrgen/_defs.h
index f4375d73c5ca..d767206feea4 100644
--- a/include/linux/sunrpc/xdrgen/_defs.h
+++ b/include/linux/sunrpc/xdrgen/_defs.h
@@ -30,15 +30,24 @@ typedef struct {
 } opaque;
 
 /*
- * Cursor a hook-driven aggregate codec hands to its application hooks,
- * one element at a time, in place of a materialized C array. The
- * generated framing owns it. @xdr is the RPC layer's stream; @ctx is
- * that stream's xdrgen_ctx, the svc_rqst on the server. @index is
- * the current element and @count the wire array length: a decoder
- * fills @count from the wire before the begin hook runs, an
- * encoder's begin hook sets it. @member_id selects among a type's
- * marked members. The begin/item/end contract is under "Pragma
- * aggregate" in tools/net/sunrpc/xdrgen/README.
+ * Cursor a hook-driven aggregate codec hands to its begin/item/end
+ * hooks, one element at a time, in place of a materialized C array.
+ * The generated framing owns it. @xdr is the RPC layer's stream and
+ * @ctx its xdrgen_ctx, the svc_rqst on the server. @index is the
+ * current element; @member_id selects among a type's marked members.
+ * For a counted array @count is the wire length: a decoder fills it
+ * before the begin hook runs, an encoder's begin hook sets it. The
+ * hook contract is under "Pragma aggregate" in
+ * tools/net/sunrpc/xdrgen/README.
+ *
+ * An optional-data list ("type *name") carries no count. Its encoder
+ * pulls elements until the item hook returns false. False ends the
+ * list rather than failing the encode: the framing writes the
+ * value-follows terminator, so a producer that stops early leaves a
+ * valid truncated list on the wire. A producer that stops for a
+ * mid-list error records it in the application state @ctx reaches,
+ * and either returns false from the end hook, which fails the
+ * encode, or reports it in the procedure status.
  */
 struct xdrgen_aggregate_cursor {
 	struct xdr_stream	*xdr;
diff --git a/tools/net/sunrpc/xdrgen/README b/tools/net/sunrpc/xdrgen/README
index 2e230c43de2f..9f9a4d8bc7ae 100644
--- a/tools/net/sunrpc/xdrgen/README
+++ b/tools/net/sunrpc/xdrgen/README
@@ -182,7 +182,13 @@ no count: each element is prefixed by a value-follows TRUE and the
 sequence is closed by a FALSE, which the framing writes after the
 last element. The element type must therefore be a pointer type,
 whose codec owns that framing; xdrgen rejects any other element
-type. For the optional-data form xdrgen generates a working
+type. That form has no count to loop on, so its encoder pulls
+elements until the item hook returns false. False ends the list
+rather than failing the encode: a producer stops when its source
+is exhausted or when a reply budget fills. A producer that stops
+for an error records it in its own state and either fails the
+encode from the end hook or reports it in the procedure status.
+For the optional-data form xdrgen generates a working
 encoder only; the decoder it emits fails without consuming the
 list, so xdrgen also rejects the directive when the struct is
 reachable from an RPC argument.
@@ -208,7 +214,7 @@ member:
 For a variable-length array, a decoder fills the cursor's count from
 the wire before calling the begin hook, and an encoder's begin hook
 sets that count for the framing to bound-check and emit. An
-optional-data list's encoder begin hook sets the count as well; its
+optional-data list's encoder does not read the count and its
 decoder never fills it. Once a begin hook
 has succeeded its end hook runs, so that it can release what begin
 took; the end hook receives the running success flag.
diff --git a/tools/net/sunrpc/xdrgen/templates/C/struct/encoder/aggregate_optional.j2 b/tools/net/sunrpc/xdrgen/templates/C/struct/encoder/aggregate_optional.j2
index d45b823225f7..4f35b6976109 100644
--- a/tools/net/sunrpc/xdrgen/templates/C/struct/encoder/aggregate_optional.j2
+++ b/tools/net/sunrpc/xdrgen/templates/C/struct/encoder/aggregate_optional.j2
@@ -12,13 +12,11 @@
 
 		if (!{{ hook }}_encode_begin(&cursor))
 			return false;
-		for (cursor.index = 0; cursor.index < cursor.count; cursor.index++) {
+		for (cursor.index = 0; ; cursor.index++) {
 			{{ classifier }}{{ c_type }} element = {};
 
-			if (!{{ hook }}_encode(&cursor, &element)) {
-				ok = false;
+			if (!{{ hook }}_encode(&cursor, &element))
 				break;
-			}
 			if (!xdrgen_encode_{{ type }}(xdr, &element)) {
 				ok = false;
 				break;