diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 18c73c0a7ec..132e4c00aaa 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -661,6 +661,10 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
 
     HADOOP-11958. MetricsSystemImpl fails to show backtrace when an error
     occurs (Jason Lowe via jeagles)
+
+    HADOOP-12009 Clarify FileSystem.listStatus() sorting order & fix
+    FileSystemContractBaseTest:testListStatus. (J.Andreina via stevel)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-11785. Reduce the number of listStatus operation in distcp
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileSystem.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileSystem.java
index 01d4b274608..3f9e3bd3817 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileSystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileSystem.java
@@ -1498,7 +1498,9 @@ public abstract class FileSystem extends Configured implements Closeable {
   /**
    * List the statuses of the files/directories in the given path if the path is
    * a directory.
-   * 
+   * <p>
+   * Does not guarantee to return the List of files/directories status in a
+   * sorted order.
    * @param f given path
    * @return the statuses of the files/directories in the given patch
    * @throws FileNotFoundException when the path does not exist;
@@ -1540,6 +1542,9 @@ public abstract class FileSystem extends Configured implements Closeable {
   /**
    * Filter files/directories in the given path using the user-supplied path
    * filter.
+   * <p>
+   * Does not guarantee to return the List of files/directories status in a
+   * sorted order.
    * 
    * @param f
    *          a path name
@@ -1560,6 +1565,9 @@ public abstract class FileSystem extends Configured implements Closeable {
   /**
    * Filter files/directories in the given list of paths using default
    * path filter.
+   * <p>
+   * Does not guarantee to return the List of files/directories status in a
+   * sorted order.
    * 
    * @param files
    *          a list of paths
@@ -1576,6 +1584,9 @@ public abstract class FileSystem extends Configured implements Closeable {
   /**
    * Filter files/directories in the given list of paths using user-supplied
    * path filter.
+   * <p>
+   * Does not guarantee to return the List of files/directories status in a
+   * sorted order.
    * 
    * @param files
    *          a list of paths
@@ -1736,6 +1747,8 @@ public abstract class FileSystem extends Configured implements Closeable {
    * while consuming the entries. Each file system implementation should
    * override this method and provide a more efficient implementation, if
    * possible. 
+   * Does not guarantee to return the iterator that traverses statuses
+   * of the files in a sorted order.
    *
    * @param p target path
    * @return remote iterator
@@ -1763,6 +1776,8 @@ public abstract class FileSystem extends Configured implements Closeable {
 
   /**
    * List the statuses and block locations of the files in the given path.
+   * Does not guarantee to return the iterator that traverses statuses
+   * of the files in a sorted order.
    * 
    * If the path is a directory, 
    *   if recursive is false, returns files in the directory;
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/site/markdown/filesystem/filesystem.md b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/site/markdown/filesystem/filesystem.md
index 84e375508c2..f323374c941 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/site/markdown/filesystem/filesystem.md
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/site/markdown/filesystem/filesystem.md
@@ -183,6 +183,10 @@ to the same path:
     forall fs in listStatus(Path) :
       fs == getFileStatus(fs.path)
 
+**Ordering of results**: there is no guarantee of ordering of the listed entries.
+While HDFS currently returns an alphanumerically sorted list, neither the Posix `readdir()`
+nor Java's `File.listFiles()` API calls define any ordering of returned values. Applications
+which require a uniform sort order on the results must perform the sorting themselves.
 
 ### Atomicity and Consistency
 
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileSystemContractBaseTest.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileSystemContractBaseTest.java
index 2ca81e9e908..495af000891 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileSystemContractBaseTest.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileSystemContractBaseTest.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ package org.apache.hadoop.fs;
 
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
 
 import junit.framework.TestCase;
 
@@ -224,9 +225,13 @@ public abstract class FileSystemContractBaseTest extends TestCase {
 
     paths = fs.listStatus(path("/test/hadoop"));
     assertEquals(3, paths.length);
-    assertEquals(path("/test/hadoop/a"), paths[0].getPath());
-    assertEquals(path("/test/hadoop/b"), paths[1].getPath());
-    assertEquals(path("/test/hadoop/c"), paths[2].getPath());
+    ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
+    for (FileStatus fileState : paths) {
+      list.add(fileState.getPath().toString());
+    }
+    assertTrue(list.contains(path("/test/hadoop/a")));
+    assertTrue(list.contains(path("/test/hadoop/b")));
+    assertTrue(list.contains(path("/test/hadoop/c")));
 
     paths = fs.listStatus(path("/test/hadoop/a"));
     assertEquals(0, paths.length);