diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
index 6918b98faeb62c56602b90d427f070bec2fe04f9..9b0078aabaf928be1e033f797bdbd482b1858331 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
@@ -1051,7 +1051,9 @@ int ovl_check_d_type_supported(struct path *realpath)
 	return rdd.d_type_supported;
 }
 
-static void ovl_workdir_cleanup_recurse(struct path *path, int level)
+#define OVL_INCOMPATDIR_NAME "incompat"
+
+static int ovl_workdir_cleanup_recurse(struct path *path, int level)
 {
 	int err;
 	struct inode *dir = path->dentry->d_inode;
@@ -1065,6 +1067,19 @@ static void ovl_workdir_cleanup_recurse(struct path *path, int level)
 		.root = &root,
 		.is_lowest = false,
 	};
+	bool incompat = false;
+
+	/*
+	 * The "work/incompat" directory is treated specially - if it is not
+	 * empty, instead of printing a generic error and mounting read-only,
+	 * we will error about incompat features and fail the mount.
+	 *
+	 * When called from ovl_indexdir_cleanup(), path->dentry->d_name.name
+	 * starts with '#'.
+	 */
+	if (level == 2 &&
+	    !strcmp(path->dentry->d_name.name, OVL_INCOMPATDIR_NAME))
+		incompat = true;
 
 	err = ovl_dir_read(path, &rdd);
 	if (err)
@@ -1079,17 +1094,25 @@ static void ovl_workdir_cleanup_recurse(struct path *path, int level)
 				continue;
 			if (p->len == 2 && p->name[1] == '.')
 				continue;
+		} else if (incompat) {
+			pr_err("overlay with incompat feature '%s' cannot be mounted\n",
+				p->name);
+			err = -EINVAL;
+			break;
 		}
 		dentry = lookup_one_len(p->name, path->dentry, p->len);
 		if (IS_ERR(dentry))
 			continue;
 		if (dentry->d_inode)
-			ovl_workdir_cleanup(dir, path->mnt, dentry, level);
+			err = ovl_workdir_cleanup(dir, path->mnt, dentry, level);
 		dput(dentry);
+		if (err)
+			break;
 	}
 	inode_unlock(dir);
 out:
 	ovl_cache_free(&list);
+	return err;
 }
 
 int ovl_workdir_cleanup(struct inode *dir, struct vfsmount *mnt,
@@ -1106,9 +1129,10 @@ int ovl_workdir_cleanup(struct inode *dir, struct vfsmount *mnt,
 		struct path path = { .mnt = mnt, .dentry = dentry };
 
 		inode_unlock(dir);
-		ovl_workdir_cleanup_recurse(&path, level + 1);
+		err = ovl_workdir_cleanup_recurse(&path, level + 1);
 		inode_lock_nested(dir, I_MUTEX_PARENT);
-		err = ovl_cleanup(dir, dentry);
+		if (!err)
+			err = ovl_cleanup(dir, dentry);
 	}
 
 	return err;
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/super.c b/fs/overlayfs/super.c
index 4b38141c298570a030cf290aa73eafe2e075bb6d..f82defec02c16806adf0ed3f4dba309e92402ca4 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/super.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/super.c
@@ -705,8 +705,12 @@ retry:
 				goto out_unlock;
 
 			retried = true;
-			ovl_workdir_cleanup(dir, mnt, work, 0);
+			err = ovl_workdir_cleanup(dir, mnt, work, 0);
 			dput(work);
+			if (err == -EINVAL) {
+				work = ERR_PTR(err);
+				goto out_unlock;
+			}
 			goto retry;
 		}
 
@@ -1203,7 +1207,7 @@ static int ovl_make_workdir(struct super_block *sb, struct ovl_fs *ofs,
 			    struct path *workpath)
 {
 	struct vfsmount *mnt = ovl_upper_mnt(ofs);
-	struct dentry *temp;
+	struct dentry *temp, *workdir;
 	bool rename_whiteout;
 	bool d_type;
 	int fh_type;
@@ -1213,10 +1217,13 @@ static int ovl_make_workdir(struct super_block *sb, struct ovl_fs *ofs,
 	if (err)
 		return err;
 
-	ofs->workdir = ovl_workdir_create(ofs, OVL_WORKDIR_NAME, false);
-	if (!ofs->workdir)
+	workdir = ovl_workdir_create(ofs, OVL_WORKDIR_NAME, false);
+	err = PTR_ERR(workdir);
+	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(workdir))
 		goto out;
 
+	ofs->workdir = workdir;
+
 	err = ovl_setup_trap(sb, ofs->workdir, &ofs->workdir_trap, "workdir");
 	if (err)
 		goto out;
@@ -1347,6 +1354,7 @@ static int ovl_get_indexdir(struct super_block *sb, struct ovl_fs *ofs,
 			    struct ovl_entry *oe, struct path *upperpath)
 {
 	struct vfsmount *mnt = ovl_upper_mnt(ofs);
+	struct dentry *indexdir;
 	int err;
 
 	err = mnt_want_write(mnt);
@@ -1366,9 +1374,12 @@ static int ovl_get_indexdir(struct super_block *sb, struct ovl_fs *ofs,
 	ofs->workdir_trap = NULL;
 	dput(ofs->workdir);
 	ofs->workdir = NULL;
-	ofs->indexdir = ovl_workdir_create(ofs, OVL_INDEXDIR_NAME, true);
-	if (ofs->indexdir) {
-		ofs->workdir = dget(ofs->indexdir);
+	indexdir = ovl_workdir_create(ofs, OVL_INDEXDIR_NAME, true);
+	if (IS_ERR(indexdir)) {
+		err = PTR_ERR(indexdir);
+	} else if (indexdir) {
+		ofs->indexdir = indexdir;
+		ofs->workdir = dget(indexdir);
 
 		err = ovl_setup_trap(sb, ofs->indexdir, &ofs->indexdir_trap,
 				     "indexdir");