diff -up nfs-utils-2.3.3/support/export/v4clients.c.orig nfs-utils-2.3.3/support/export/v4clients.c
--- nfs-utils-2.3.3/support/export/v4clients.c.orig	2022-09-26 11:36:22.803929066 -0400
+++ nfs-utils-2.3.3/support/export/v4clients.c	2022-09-26 11:38:38.221187835 -0400
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <sys/inotify.h>
+#include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <errno.h>
 #include "export.h"
 
@@ -23,6 +24,12 @@ static int clients_fd = -1;
 
 void v4clients_init(void)
 {
+	struct stat sb;
+
+	if (!stat("/proc/fs/nfsd/clients", &sb) == 0 ||
+		!S_ISDIR(sb.st_mode))
+		return;
+
 	if (clients_fd >= 0)
 		return;
 	clients_fd = inotify_init1(IN_NONBLOCK);