diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/copy_up.c b/fs/overlayfs/copy_up.c
index b168c65666e2..9fc47c2e078d 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/copy_up.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/copy_up.c
@@ -123,6 +123,9 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_data(struct path *old, struct path *new, loff_t len)
 	loff_t old_pos = 0;
 	loff_t new_pos = 0;
 	loff_t cloned;
+	loff_t data_pos = -1;
+	loff_t hole_len;
+	bool skip_hole = false;
 	int error = 0;
 
 	if (len == 0)
@@ -144,7 +147,11 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_data(struct path *old, struct path *new, loff_t len)
 		goto out;
 	/* Couldn't clone, so now we try to copy the data */
 
-	/* FIXME: copy up sparse files efficiently */
+	/* Check if lower fs supports seek operation */
+	if (old_file->f_mode & FMODE_LSEEK &&
+	    old_file->f_op->llseek)
+		skip_hole = true;
+
 	while (len) {
 		size_t this_len = OVL_COPY_UP_CHUNK_SIZE;
 		long bytes;
@@ -157,6 +164,36 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_data(struct path *old, struct path *new, loff_t len)
 			break;
 		}
 
+		/*
+		 * Fill zero for hole will cost unnecessary disk space
+		 * and meanwhile slow down the copy-up speed, so we do
+		 * an optimization for hole during copy-up, it relies
+		 * on SEEK_DATA implementation in lower fs so if lower
+		 * fs does not support it, copy-up will behave as before.
+		 *
+		 * Detail logic of hole detection as below:
+		 * When we detect next data position is larger than current
+		 * position we will skip that hole, otherwise we copy
+		 * data in the size of OVL_COPY_UP_CHUNK_SIZE. Actually,
+		 * it may not recognize all kind of holes and sometimes
+		 * only skips partial of hole area. However, it will be
+		 * enough for most of the use cases.
+		 */
+
+		if (skip_hole && data_pos < old_pos) {
+			data_pos = vfs_llseek(old_file, old_pos, SEEK_DATA);
+			if (data_pos > old_pos) {
+				hole_len = data_pos - old_pos;
+				len -= hole_len;
+				old_pos = new_pos = data_pos;
+				continue;
+			} else if (data_pos == -ENXIO) {
+				break;
+			} else if (data_pos < 0) {
+				skip_hole = false;
+			}
+		}
+
 		bytes = do_splice_direct(old_file, &old_pos,
 					 new_file, &new_pos,
 					 this_len, SPLICE_F_MOVE);
@@ -480,7 +517,7 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_inode(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *c, struct dentry *temp)
 	}
 
 	inode_lock(temp->d_inode);
-	if (c->metacopy)
+	if (S_ISREG(c->stat.mode))
 		err = ovl_set_size(temp, &c->stat);
 	if (!err)
 		err = ovl_set_attr(temp, &c->stat);