diff --git a/fs/dcache.c b/fs/dcache.c
index 995d08069d26..f1809e6b9fda 100644
--- a/fs/dcache.c
+++ b/fs/dcache.c
@@ -1970,9 +1970,15 @@ char *__d_path(const struct path *path, struct path *root,
 	return retval;
 
 global_root:
-	retval += 1;	/* hit the slash */
-	if (prepend_name(&retval, &buflen, &dentry->d_name) != 0)
-		goto Elong;
+	/*
+	 * Filesystems needing to implement special "root names"
+	 * should do so with ->d_dname()
+	 */
+	if (IS_ROOT(dentry) &&
+	    (dentry->d_name.len != 1 || dentry->d_name.name[0] != '/')) {
+		WARN(1, "Root dentry has weird name <%.*s>\n",
+		     (int) dentry->d_name.len, dentry->d_name.name);
+	}
 	root->mnt = vfsmnt;
 	root->dentry = dentry;
 	goto out;