diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 9f695c57c92..5d8a5404e78 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -160,6 +160,9 @@ Release 2.0.0 - UNRELEASED
     MAPREDUCE-3883. Document yarn.nodemanager.delete.debug-delay-sec 
     configuration property (Eugene Koontz via tgraves)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-4219. make default container-executor.conf.dir be a path 
+    relative to the container-executor binary. (rvs via tucu)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/pom.xml b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/pom.xml
index 6032aabd6a4..cf5d7ff8dc5 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/pom.xml
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
   <properties>
     <!-- Basedir eeded for generating FindBugs warnings using parent pom -->
     <yarn.basedir>${project.parent.parent.basedir}</yarn.basedir>
-    <container-executor.conf.dir>/etc/hadoop</container-executor.conf.dir>
+    <container-executor.conf.dir>../etc/hadoop</container-executor.conf.dir>
     <container-executor.additional_cflags></container-executor.additional_cflags>
   </properties>
 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/configuration.c b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/configuration.c
index aa723033512..eb85eb2f18e 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/configuration.c
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/configuration.c
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 #include <string.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
+#include <limits.h>
 
 #define MAX_SIZE 10
 
@@ -86,6 +87,25 @@ static int is_only_root_writable(const char *file) {
   return 1;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Return a string with the configuration file path name resolved via realpath(3)
+ *
+ * NOTE: relative path names are resolved relative to the second argument not getwd(3)
+ */
+char *resolve_config_path(const char* file_name, const char *root) {
+  const char *real_fname = NULL;
+  char buffer[PATH_MAX*2 + 1];
+
+  if (file_name[0] == '/') {
+    real_fname = file_name;
+  } else if (realpath(root, buffer) != NULL) {
+    strncpy(strrchr(buffer, '/') + 1, file_name, PATH_MAX);
+    real_fname = buffer;
+  }
+
+  return (real_fname == NULL) ? NULL : realpath(real_fname, NULL);
+}
+
 /**
  * Ensure that the configuration file and all of the containing directories
  * are only writable by root. Otherwise, an attacker can change the 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/configuration.h b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/configuration.h
index b0d4814b310..fb9529f0dc7 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/configuration.h
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/configuration.h
@@ -24,6 +24,13 @@
  */
 int check_configuration_permissions(const char* file_name);
 
+/**
+ * Return a string with the configuration file path name resolved via realpath(3)
+ *
+ * NOTE: relative path names are resolved relative to the second argument not getwd(3)
+ */
+char *resolve_config_path(const char* file_name, const char *root);
+
 // read the given configuration file
 void read_config(const char* config_file);
 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/main.c b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/main.c
index d039f05ea43..cd8caabe333 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/main.c
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/impl/main.c
@@ -33,6 +33,12 @@
 #define STRINGIFY(X) _STRINGIFY(X)
 #define CONF_FILENAME "container-executor.cfg"
 
+// When building as part of a Maven build this value gets defined by using
+// container-executor.conf.dir property. See:
+//   hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/pom.xml
+// for details.
+// NOTE: if this ends up being a relative path it gets resolved relative to
+//       the location of the container-executor binary itself, not getwd(3)
 #ifndef HADOOP_CONF_DIR
   #error HADOOP_CONF_DIR must be defined
 #endif
@@ -96,7 +102,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
   char *executable_file = get_executable();
 
   char *orig_conf_file = STRINGIFY(HADOOP_CONF_DIR) "/" CONF_FILENAME;
-  char *conf_file = realpath(orig_conf_file, NULL);
+  char *conf_file = resolve_config_path(orig_conf_file, argv[0]);
   char *local_dirs, *log_dirs;
 
   if (conf_file == NULL) {
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/test/test-container-executor.c b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/test/test-container-executor.c
index b7796586a4d..07a343c69f3 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/test/test-container-executor.c
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/native/container-executor/test/test-container-executor.c
@@ -196,6 +196,18 @@ void test_check_user() {
   }
 }
 
+void test_resolve_config_path() {
+  printf("\nTesting resolve_config_path\n");
+  if (strcmp(resolve_config_path("/etc/passwd", NULL), "/etc/passwd") != 0) {
+    printf("FAIL: failed to resolve config_name on an absolute path name: /etc/passwd\n");
+    exit(1);
+  }
+  if (strcmp(resolve_config_path("../etc/passwd", "/etc/passwd"), "/etc/passwd") != 0) {
+    printf("FAIL: failed to resolve config_name on a relative path name: ../etc/passwd (relative to /etc/passwd)");
+    exit(1);
+  }
+}
+
 void test_check_configuration_permissions() {
   printf("\nTesting check_configuration_permissions\n");
   if (check_configuration_permissions("/etc/passwd") != 0) {
@@ -668,7 +680,9 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
   int my_username = 0;
 
   // clean up any junk from previous run
-  system("chmod -R u=rwx " TEST_ROOT "; rm -fr " TEST_ROOT);
+  if (system("chmod -R u=rwx " TEST_ROOT "; rm -fr " TEST_ROOT)) {
+    exit(1);
+  }
   
   if (mkdirs(TEST_ROOT "/logs/userlogs", 0755) != 0) {
     exit(1);
@@ -700,6 +714,9 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
 
   printf("\nStarting tests\n");
 
+  printf("\nTesting resolve_config_path()\n");
+  test_resolve_config_path();
+
   printf("\nTesting get_user_directory()\n");
   test_get_user_directory();