diff --git a/dev-support/releasedocmaker.py b/dev-support/releasedocmaker.py
index b00c1a78f27..78c8e6b4c03 100755
--- a/dev-support/releasedocmaker.py
+++ b/dev-support/releasedocmaker.py
@@ -30,6 +30,26 @@ except ImportError:
 releaseVersion={}
 namePattern = re.compile(r' \([0-9]+\)')
 
+asflicense='''
+<!---
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+-->
+'''
+
 def clean(str):
   return tableclean(re.sub(namePattern, "", str))
 
@@ -357,6 +377,9 @@ def main():
       "%(ver)s/CHANGES.%(key)s.%(ver)s.md",
       ["HADOOP","HDFS","MAPREDUCE","YARN"], {"ver":maxVersion, "date":reldate})
 
+  reloutputs.writeAll(asflicense)
+  choutputs.writeAll(asflicense)
+
   relhead = '# Hadoop %(key)s %(ver)s Release Notes\n\n' \
     'These release notes cover new developer and user-facing incompatibilities, features, and major improvements.\n\n'
 
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 260cc830f8c..495c42d2d74 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -431,6 +431,8 @@ Trunk (Unreleased)
     HADOOP-11703. git should ignore .DS_Store files on Mac OS X (Abin Shahab
     via aw)
 
+    HADOOP-11797. releasedocmaker.py needs to put ASF headers on output (aw)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-7761. Improve the performance of raw comparisons. (todd)