diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index eff1b86bf47..f51e265db9a 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -312,6 +312,9 @@ Release 2.0.3-alpha - Unreleased
     HDFS-4279. NameNode does not initialize generic conf keys when started
     with -recover. (Colin Patrick McCabe via atm)
 
+    HDFS-4291. edit log unit tests leave stray test_edit_log_file around
+    (Colin Patrick McCabe via todd)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-3077 SUBTASKS
 
     HDFS-3077. Quorum-based protocol for reading and writing edit logs.
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestEditLog.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestEditLog.java
index 357739c1689..27c4173a6bd 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestEditLog.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestEditLog.java
@@ -1209,22 +1209,19 @@ public class TestEditLog {
    *
    */
   static void validateNoCrash(byte garbage[]) throws IOException {
-    final String TEST_LOG_NAME = "test_edit_log";
+    final File TEST_LOG_NAME = new File(TEST_DIR, "test_edit_log");
 
     EditLogFileOutputStream elfos = null;
-    File file = null;
     EditLogFileInputStream elfis = null;
     try {
-      file = new File(TEST_LOG_NAME);
-      elfos = new EditLogFileOutputStream(file, 0);
+      elfos = new EditLogFileOutputStream(TEST_LOG_NAME, 0);
       elfos.create();
       elfos.writeRaw(garbage, 0, garbage.length);
       elfos.setReadyToFlush();
       elfos.flushAndSync(true);
       elfos.close();
       elfos = null;
-      file = new File(TEST_LOG_NAME);
-      elfis = new EditLogFileInputStream(file);
+      elfis = new EditLogFileInputStream(TEST_LOG_NAME);
 
       // verify that we can read everything without killing the JVM or
       // throwing an exception other than IOException
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestNameNodeRecovery.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestNameNodeRecovery.java
index 5f18ee4236b..c73dbc197d6 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestNameNodeRecovery.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestNameNodeRecovery.java
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ import com.google.common.collect.Sets;
 public class TestNameNodeRecovery {
   private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(TestNameNodeRecovery.class);
   private static StartupOption recoverStartOpt = StartupOption.RECOVER;
+  private static final File TEST_DIR = new File(
+      System.getProperty("test.build.data","build/test/data"));
 
   static {
     recoverStartOpt.setForce(MetaRecoveryContext.FORCE_ALL);
@@ -66,15 +68,13 @@ public class TestNameNodeRecovery {
   }
 
   static void runEditLogTest(EditLogTestSetup elts) throws IOException {
-    final String TEST_LOG_NAME = "test_edit_log";
+    final File TEST_LOG_NAME = new File(TEST_DIR, "test_edit_log");
     final OpInstanceCache cache = new OpInstanceCache();
     
     EditLogFileOutputStream elfos = null;
-    File file = null;
     EditLogFileInputStream elfis = null;
     try {
-      file = new File(TEST_LOG_NAME);
-      elfos = new EditLogFileOutputStream(file, 0);
+      elfos = new EditLogFileOutputStream(TEST_LOG_NAME, 0);
       elfos.create();
 
       elts.addTransactionsToLog(elfos, cache);
@@ -82,8 +82,7 @@ public class TestNameNodeRecovery {
       elfos.flushAndSync(true);
       elfos.close();
       elfos = null;
-      file = new File(TEST_LOG_NAME);
-      elfis = new EditLogFileInputStream(file);
+      elfis = new EditLogFileInputStream(TEST_LOG_NAME);
       
       // reading through normally will get you an exception
       Set<Long> validTxIds = elts.getValidTxIds();