diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index ec7d1c6ba1e..84535d6f367 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1100,6 +1100,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
 
     HADOOP-12447. Clean up some htrace integration issues (cmccabe)
 
+    HADOOP-12448. TestTextCommand: use mkdirs rather than mkdir to create test
+    directory. (Contributed by Colin Patrick McCabe and Chris Nauroth)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-12051. ProtobufRpcEngine.invoke() should use Exception.toString()
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/TestTextCommand.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/TestTextCommand.java
index 70a2f037b39..0e33d6ab647 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/TestTextCommand.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/TestTextCommand.java
@@ -22,11 +22,13 @@ import static org.junit.Assert.*;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
-import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.lang.reflect.Method;
 import java.net.URI;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
 
 import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
@@ -38,12 +40,13 @@ import org.junit.Test;
  * by the Text command.
  */
 public class TestTextCommand {
-  private static final String TEST_ROOT_DIR =
-    System.getProperty("test.build.data", "build/test/data/") + "/testText";
+  private static final File TEST_ROOT_DIR =
+    Paths.get(System.getProperty("test.build.data", "build/test/data"),
+        "testText").toFile();
   private static final String AVRO_FILENAME =
-    new Path(TEST_ROOT_DIR, "weather.avro").toUri().getPath();
+    new File(TEST_ROOT_DIR, "weather.avro").toURI().getPath();
   private static final String TEXT_FILENAME =
-    new Path(TEST_ROOT_DIR, "testtextfile.txt").toUri().getPath();
+    new File(TEST_ROOT_DIR, "testtextfile.txt").toURI().getPath();
 
   /**
    * Tests whether binary Avro data files are displayed correctly.
@@ -126,7 +129,7 @@ public class TestTextCommand {
   }
 
   private void createFile(String fileName, byte[] contents) throws IOException {
-    (new File(TEST_ROOT_DIR)).mkdir();
+    Files.createDirectories(TEST_ROOT_DIR.toPath());
     File file = new File(fileName);
     file.createNewFile();
     FileOutputStream stream = new FileOutputStream(file);