diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 67b4ccbc123..1450c116f27 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -590,6 +590,9 @@ Release 0.22.0 - Unreleased
     HADOOP-6898. FileSystem.copyToLocal creates files with 777 permissions.
     (Aaron T. Myers via tomwhite)
 
+    HADOOP-7229. Do not default to an absolute path for kinit in Kerberos
+    auto-renewal thread. (Aaron T. Myers via todd)
+
 Release 0.21.1 - Unreleased
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
diff --git a/src/java/core-default.xml b/src/java/core-default.xml
index 85e5966a225..57b878365c5 100644
--- a/src/java/core-default.xml
+++ b/src/java/core-default.xml
@@ -123,6 +123,16 @@
   </description>
 </property>
 
+<property>
+  <name>hadoop.kerberos.kinit.command</name>
+  <value>kinit</value>
+  <description>Used to periodically renew Kerberos credentials when provided
+  to Hadoop. The default setting assumes that kinit is in the PATH of users
+  running the Hadoop client. Change this to the absolute path to kinit if this
+  is not the case.
+  </description>
+</property>
+
 <!--- logging properties -->
 
 <property>
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/UserGroupInformation.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/UserGroupInformation.java
index 085ce61719e..af133af7b3c 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/UserGroupInformation.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/UserGroupInformation.java
@@ -560,7 +560,7 @@ public class UserGroupInformation {
           
           public void run() {
             String cmd = conf.get("hadoop.kerberos.kinit.command",
-                                  "/usr/kerberos/bin/kinit");
+                                  "kinit");
             KerberosTicket tgt = getTGT();
             if (tgt == null) {
               return;