diff --git a/src/java.base/linux/classes/sun/nio/fs/LinuxWatchService.java b/src/java.base/linux/classes/sun/nio/fs/LinuxWatchService.java
--- a/src/java.base/linux/classes/sun/nio/fs/LinuxWatchService.java
+++ b/src/java.base/linux/classes/sun/nio/fs/LinuxWatchService.java
@@ -322,19 +322,6 @@
                         bytesRead = 0;
                     }
 
-                    // process any pending requests
-                    if ((nReady > 1) || (nReady == 1 && bytesRead == 0)) {
-                        try {
-                            read(socketpair[0], address, BUFFER_SIZE);
-                            boolean shutdown = processRequests();
-                            if (shutdown)
-                                break;
-                        } catch (UnixException x) {
-                            if (x.errno() != UnixConstants.EAGAIN)
-                                throw x;
-                        }
-                    }
-
                     // iterate over buffer to decode events
                     int offset = 0;
                     while (offset < bytesRead) {
@@ -369,6 +356,20 @@
 
                         offset += (SIZEOF_INOTIFY_EVENT + len);
                     }
+
+                    // process any pending requests
+                    if ((nReady > 1) || (nReady == 1 && bytesRead == 0)) {
+                        try {
+                            read(socketpair[0], address, BUFFER_SIZE);
+                            boolean shutdown = processRequests();
+                            if (shutdown)
+                                break;
+                        } catch (UnixException x) {
+                            if (x.errno() != UnixConstants.EAGAIN)
+                                throw x;
+                        }
+                    }
+
                 }
             } catch (UnixException x) {
                 x.printStackTrace();