diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c
index df1e168b6c0d..19008838df76 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c
@@ -2669,14 +2669,13 @@ xfs_ifree_cluster(
 }
 
 /*
- * This is called to return an inode to the inode free list.
- * The inode should already be truncated to 0 length and have
- * no pages associated with it.  This routine also assumes that
- * the inode is already a part of the transaction.
+ * This is called to return an inode to the inode free list.  The inode should
+ * already be truncated to 0 length and have no pages associated with it.  This
+ * routine also assumes that the inode is already a part of the transaction.
  *
- * The on-disk copy of the inode will have been added to the list
- * of unlinked inodes in the AGI. We need to remove the inode from
- * that list atomically with respect to freeing it here.
+ * The on-disk copy of the inode will have been added to the list of unlinked
+ * inodes in the AGI. We need to remove the inode from that list atomically with
+ * respect to freeing it here.
  */
 int
 xfs_ifree(
@@ -2694,13 +2693,16 @@ xfs_ifree(
 	ASSERT(ip->i_d.di_nblocks == 0);
 
 	/*
-	 * Pull the on-disk inode from the AGI unlinked list.
+	 * Free the inode first so that we guarantee that the AGI lock is going
+	 * to be taken before we remove the inode from the unlinked list. This
+	 * makes the AGI lock -> unlinked list modification order the same as
+	 * used in O_TMPFILE creation.
 	 */
-	error = xfs_iunlink_remove(tp, ip);
+	error = xfs_difree(tp, ip->i_ino, &xic);
 	if (error)
 		return error;
 
-	error = xfs_difree(tp, ip->i_ino, &xic);
+	error = xfs_iunlink_remove(tp, ip);
 	if (error)
 		return error;