diff --git a/fs/jbd/transaction.c b/fs/jbd/transaction.c
index 429f4b2..ca91797 100644
--- a/fs/jbd/transaction.c
+++ b/fs/jbd/transaction.c
@@ -1308,6 +1308,7 @@
 	transaction_t *transaction = handle->h_transaction;
 	journal_t *journal = transaction->t_journal;
 	int old_handle_count, err;
+	pid_t pid;
 
 	J_ASSERT(transaction->t_updates > 0);
 	J_ASSERT(journal_current_handle() == handle);
@@ -1333,8 +1334,15 @@
 	 * It doesn't cost much - we're about to run a commit and sleep
 	 * on IO anyway.  Speeds up many-threaded, many-dir operations
 	 * by 30x or more...
+	 *
+	 * But don't do this if this process was the most recent one to
+	 * perform a synchronous write.  We do this to detect the case where a
+	 * single process is doing a stream of sync writes.  No point in waiting
+	 * for joiners in that case.
 	 */
-	if (handle->h_sync) {
+	pid = current->pid;
+	if (handle->h_sync && journal->j_last_sync_writer != pid) {
+		journal->j_last_sync_writer = pid;
 		do {
 			old_handle_count = transaction->t_handle_count;
 			schedule_timeout_uninterruptible(1);