diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index f2616e5db38..179e860d7a0 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -286,6 +286,9 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HADOOP-6663.  BlockDecompressorStream get EOF exception when decompressing
     the file compressed from empty file.  (Kang Xiao via tomwhite)
 
+    HADOOP-6991.  Fix SequenceFile::Reader to honor file lengths and call
+    openFile (cdouglas via omalley)
+
 Release 0.21.1 - Unreleased
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/SequenceFile.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/SequenceFile.java
index 3197d3fcabf..b3f1630dd49 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/SequenceFile.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/SequenceFile.java
@@ -951,7 +951,7 @@ public class SequenceFile {
           blockSizeOption.getValue();
         Progressable progress = progressOption == null ? null :
           progressOption.getValue();
-        out = fs.create(p, false, bufferSize, replication, blockSize, progress);
+        out = fs.create(p, true, bufferSize, replication, blockSize, progress);
       } else {
         out = streamOption.getValue();
       }
@@ -1563,14 +1563,17 @@ public class SequenceFile {
       // figure out the real values
       Path filename = null;
       FSDataInputStream file;
-      long len = lenOpt == null ? Long.MAX_VALUE : lenOpt.getValue();      
+      final long len;
       if (fileOpt != null) {
         filename = fileOpt.getValue();
         FileSystem fs = filename.getFileSystem(conf);
         int bufSize = bufOpt == null ? getBufferSize(conf): bufOpt.getValue();
-        file = fs.open(filename, bufSize);
-        len = fs.getFileStatus(filename).getLen();
+        len = null == lenOpt
+          ? fs.getFileStatus(filename).getLen()
+          : lenOpt.getValue();
+        file = openFile(fs, filename, bufSize, len);
       } else {
+        len = null == lenOpt ? Long.MAX_VALUE : lenOpt.getValue();
         file = streamOpt.getValue();
       }
       long start = startOpt == null ? 0 : startOpt.getValue();
@@ -1589,9 +1592,7 @@ public class SequenceFile {
     @Deprecated
     public Reader(FileSystem fs, Path file, 
                   Configuration conf) throws IOException {
-      initialize(file,
-                 fs.open(file, getBufferSize(conf)), 
-                 0L, fs.getFileStatus(file).getLen(), conf, false);
+      this(conf, file(file.makeQualified(fs)));
     }
 
     /**
@@ -1607,7 +1608,7 @@ public class SequenceFile {
     @Deprecated
     public Reader(FSDataInputStream in, int buffersize,
         long start, long length, Configuration conf) throws IOException {
-      initialize(null, in, start, length, conf, false);
+      this(conf, stream(in), start(start), length(length));
     }
 
     /** Common work of the constructors. */