diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 1588c865550..129e63cd5ac 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1364,6 +1364,8 @@ Release 0.23.0 - Unreleased
     MAPREDUCE-3066. Fixed default ResourceTracker address for the NodeManager. 
     (Chris Riccomini via acmurthy) 
 
+    MAPREDUCE-3044. Pipes jobs stuck without making progress. (mahadev)
+
 Release 0.22.0 - Unreleased
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-app/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/MapReduceChildJVM.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-app/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/MapReduceChildJVM.java
index fc25d06da24..4f2941a78cf 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-app/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/MapReduceChildJVM.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-app/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/MapReduceChildJVM.java
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.v2.util.MRApps;
 import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.ApplicationConstants;
 import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.ApplicationConstants.Environment;
+import org.apache.hadoop.util.StringUtils;
+import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.conf.YarnConfiguration;
 
 public class MapReduceChildJVM {
 
@@ -164,8 +166,8 @@ private static String getChildJavaOpts(JobConf jobConf, boolean isMapTask) {
   private static void setupLog4jProperties(Vector<String> vargs,
       long logSize) {
     vargs.add("-Dlog4j.configuration=container-log4j.properties");
-    vargs.add("-Dhadoop.yarn.mr.containerLogDir=" + ApplicationConstants.LOG_DIR_EXPANSION_VAR);
-    vargs.add("-Dhadoop.yarn.mr.totalLogFileSize=" + logSize);
+    vargs.add("-D" + MRJobConfig.TASK_LOG_DIR + "=" + ApplicationConstants.LOG_DIR_EXPANSION_VAR);
+    vargs.add("-D" + MRJobConfig.TASK_LOG_SIZE + "=" + logSize);
   }
 
   public static List<String> getVMCommand(
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TaskLog.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TaskLog.java
index 7e978e9cf94..597b2edaa39 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TaskLog.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TaskLog.java
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.SecureIOUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.JobID;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.MRJobConfig;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.util.ProcessTree;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.Shell;
 import org.apache.log4j.Appender;
@@ -75,10 +76,18 @@ public class TaskLog {
       }
     }
   }
-
+  
+  public static String getMRv2LogDir() {
+    return System.getProperty(MRJobConfig.TASK_LOG_DIR);
+  }
+  
   public static File getTaskLogFile(TaskAttemptID taskid, boolean isCleanup,
       LogName filter) {
-    return new File(getAttemptDir(taskid, isCleanup), filter.toString());
+    if (getMRv2LogDir() != null) {
+      return new File(getMRv2LogDir(), filter.toString());
+    } else {
+      return new File(getAttemptDir(taskid, isCleanup), filter.toString());
+    }
   }
 
   static File getRealTaskLogFileLocation(TaskAttemptID taskid,
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/pipes/Application.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/pipes/Application.java
index cb8b476ac75..0a108d73b63 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/pipes/Application.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/pipes/Application.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 
 package org.apache.hadoop.mapred.pipes;
 
+import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.ServerSocket;
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Map.Entry;
 import java.util.Random;
 import javax.crypto.SecretKey;
 
@@ -111,7 +113,6 @@ class Application<K1 extends WritableComparable, V1 extends Writable,
     if (interpretor != null) {
       cmd.add(interpretor);
     }
-
     String executable = DistributedCache.getLocalCacheFiles(conf)[0].toString();
     if (!new File(executable).canExecute()) {
       // LinuxTaskController sets +x permissions on all distcache files already.
@@ -129,7 +130,7 @@ class Application<K1 extends WritableComparable, V1 extends Writable,
     long logLength = TaskLog.getTaskLogLength(conf);
     cmd = TaskLog.captureOutAndError(null, cmd, stdout, stderr, logLength,
                                      false);
-
+    
     process = runClient(cmd, env);
     clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
     
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
index a493ed1cf7c..a022229fcda 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
@@ -458,7 +458,12 @@ public interface MRJobConfig {
   // For now, generated by the AppManagers and used by NodeManagers and the
   // Containers.
   public static final String APPLICATION_TOKENS_FILE = "appTokens";
-
+  
+  /** The log directory for the containers */
+  public static final String TASK_LOG_DIR = MR_PREFIX + "container.log.dir";
+  
+  public static final String TASK_LOG_SIZE = MR_PREFIX + "log.filesize";
+  
   public static final String MAPREDUCE_V2_CHILD_CLASS = 
       "org.apache.hadoop.mapred.YarnChild";
 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/resources/container-log4j.properties b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/resources/container-log4j.properties
index 897bca3f414..96108ab9656 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/resources/container-log4j.properties
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/resources/container-log4j.properties
@@ -12,12 +12,12 @@ log4j.threshold=ALL
 #
 
 #Default values
-hadoop.yarn.mr.containerLogDir=null
-hadoop.yarn.mr.totalLogFileSize=100
+yarn.app.mapreduce.container.log.dir=null
+yarn.app.mapreduce.container.log.filesize=100
 
 log4j.appender.CLA=org.apache.hadoop.yarn.ContainerLogAppender
-log4j.appender.CLA.containerLogDir=${hadoop.yarn.mr.containerLogDir}
-log4j.appender.CLA.totalLogFileSize=${hadoop.yarn.mr.totalLogFileSize}
+log4j.appender.CLA.containerLogDir=${yarn.app.mapreduce.container.log.dir}
+log4j.appender.CLA.totalLogFileSize=${yarn.app.mapreduce.container.log.filesize}
 
 log4j.appender.CLA.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
 log4j.appender.CLA.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ISO8601} %p %c: %m%n