diff --git a/dev-support/test-patch.sh b/dev-support/test-patch.sh
index ad3d22c3f6c..ccadfb7d4b0 100755
--- a/dev-support/test-patch.sh
+++ b/dev-support/test-patch.sh
@@ -581,6 +581,7 @@ function hadoop_usage
   echo "--debug                If set, then output some extra stuff to stderr"
   echo "--dirty-workspace      Allow the local git workspace to have uncommitted changes"
   echo "--findbugs-home=<path> Findbugs home directory (default FINDBUGS_HOME environment variable)"
+  echo "--issue-re=<expr>      Bash regular expression to use when trying to find a jira ref in the patch name (default '^(HADOOP|YARN|MAPREDUCE|HDFS)-[0-9]+$')"
   echo "--modulelist=<list>    Specify additional modules to test (comma delimited)"
   echo "--offline              Avoid connecting to the Internet"
   echo "--patch-dir=<dir>      The directory for working and output files (default '/tmp/${PROJECT_NAME}-test-patch/pid')"
@@ -668,6 +669,9 @@ function parse_args
         hadoop_usage
         exit 0
       ;;
+      --issue-re=*)
+        ISSUE_RE=${i#*=}
+      ;;
       --java-home)
         JAVA_HOME=${i#*=}
       ;;
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 801db1e7547..8b5adea41a9 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -89,6 +89,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-11950. Add cli option to test-patch to set the project-under-test
     (Sean Busbey via aw)
 
+    HADOOP-11948. test-patch's issue matching regex should be configurable.
+    (Sean Busbey via aw)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-11785. Reduce the number of listStatus operation in distcp