diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 8f70927f8c0..f94d5b9b1cd 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -656,6 +656,9 @@ Release 0.23.3 - UNRELEASED
     space due to org.apache.hadoop.fs.LocalDirAllocator.contexts (Devaraj K
     via bobby)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-4402. TestFileInputFormat fails intermittently (Jason Lowe via
+    bobby)
+
 Release 0.23.2 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestFileInputFormat.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestFileInputFormat.java
index fca9b358647..3c59943159a 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestFileInputFormat.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestFileInputFormat.java
@@ -97,13 +97,16 @@ public class TestFileInputFormat extends TestCase {
   private void createInputs(FileSystem fs, Path inDir, String fileName)
   throws IOException {
     // create a multi-block file on hdfs
-    DataOutputStream out = fs.create(new Path(inDir, fileName), true, 4096,
-                                     (short) 2, 512, null);
+    Path path = new Path(inDir, fileName);
+    final short replication = 2;
+    DataOutputStream out = fs.create(path, true, 4096,
+                                     replication, 512, null);
     for(int i=0; i < 1000; ++i) {
       out.writeChars("Hello\n");
     }
     out.close();
     System.out.println("Wrote file");
+    DFSTestUtil.waitReplication(fs, path, replication);
   }
 
   public void testNumInputs() throws Exception {