diff --git a/module/spl/spl-kmem.c b/module/spl/spl-kmem.c
index 361030b181..f7d5f7e86b 100644
--- a/module/spl/spl-kmem.c
+++ b/module/spl/spl-kmem.c
@@ -880,6 +880,16 @@ kv_free(spl_kmem_cache_t *skc, void *ptr, int size)
 	ASSERT(IS_P2ALIGNED(ptr, PAGE_SIZE));
 	ASSERT(ISP2(size));
 
+	/*
+	 * The Linux direct reclaim path uses this out of band value to
+	 * determine if forward progress is being made.  Normally this is
+	 * incremented by kmem_freepages() which is part of the various
+	 * Linux slab implementations.  However, since we are using none
+	 * of that infrastructure we are responsible for incrementing it.
+	 */
+	if (current->reclaim_state)
+		current->reclaim_state->reclaimed_slab += size >> PAGE_SHIFT;
+
 	if (skc->skc_flags & KMC_KMEM)
 		free_pages((unsigned long)ptr, get_order(size));
 	else