diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 7c765ba73ef..eea5078f128 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -93,6 +93,9 @@ Release 2.1.1-beta - UNRELEASED
 
     HADOOP-9757. Har metadata cache can grow without limit (Cristina Abad via daryn)
 
+    HADOOP-9858. Remove unused private RawLocalFileSystem#execCommand method from
+    branch-2. (cnauroth)
+
 Release 2.1.0-beta - 2013-08-06
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/RawLocalFileSystem.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/RawLocalFileSystem.java
index a65c6e39949..26742d07e9d 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/RawLocalFileSystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/RawLocalFileSystem.java
@@ -637,7 +637,7 @@ public void setPermission(Path p, FsPermission permission)
         FileUtil.makeShellPath(pathToFile(p), true)));
     }
   }
-
+ 
   /**
    * Sets the {@link Path}'s last modified time <em>only</em> to the given
    * valid time.
@@ -660,14 +660,6 @@ public void setTimes(Path p, long mtime, long atime) throws IOException {
     }
   }
 
-  private static String execCommand(File f, String... cmd) throws IOException {
-    String[] args = new String[cmd.length + 1];
-    System.arraycopy(cmd, 0, args, 0, cmd.length);
-    args[cmd.length] = FileUtil.makeShellPath(f, true);
-    String output = Shell.execCommand(args);
-    return output;
-  }
-
   @Override
   public boolean supportsSymlinks() {
     return true;