diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 3f0ee850bfb..24ab56fc6f6 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -860,6 +860,9 @@ Release 2.1.0-beta - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-4819. Update Snapshot doc to clarify that nested snapshots are not
     allowed.  (szetszwo)
 
+    HDFS-4902. DFSClient.getSnapshotDiffReport should use string path rather 
+    than o.a.h.fs.Path. (Binglin Chang via jing9) 
+
 Release 2.0.5-alpha - 06/06/2013
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
index c945d5e5aa6..d901da21fe3 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
@@ -99,7 +99,6 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.fs.MD5MD5CRC32GzipFileChecksum;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Options;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Options.ChecksumOpt;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.ParentNotDirectoryException;
-import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.UnresolvedLinkException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.VolumeId;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.permission.FsPermission;
@@ -2170,11 +2169,11 @@ public class DFSClient implements java.io.Closeable {
    * current tree of a directory.
    * @see ClientProtocol#getSnapshotDiffReport(String, String, String)
    */
-  public SnapshotDiffReport getSnapshotDiffReport(Path snapshotDir,
+  public SnapshotDiffReport getSnapshotDiffReport(String snapshotDir,
       String fromSnapshot, String toSnapshot) throws IOException {
     checkOpen();
     try {
-      return namenode.getSnapshotDiffReport(snapshotDir.toString(),
+      return namenode.getSnapshotDiffReport(snapshotDir,
           fromSnapshot, toSnapshot);
     } catch(RemoteException re) {
       throw re.unwrapRemoteException();
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DistributedFileSystem.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DistributedFileSystem.java
index 201b3fe3352..7175f8ee2d7 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DistributedFileSystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DistributedFileSystem.java
@@ -1031,7 +1031,7 @@ public class DistributedFileSystem extends FileSystem {
    */
   public SnapshotDiffReport getSnapshotDiffReport(Path snapshotDir,
       String fromSnapshot, String toSnapshot) throws IOException {
-    return dfs.getSnapshotDiffReport(snapshotDir, fromSnapshot, toSnapshot);
+    return dfs.getSnapshotDiffReport(getPathName(snapshotDir), fromSnapshot, toSnapshot);
   }
  
   /**
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/snapshot/TestSnapshotDiffReport.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/snapshot/TestSnapshotDiffReport.java
index 986186f10a0..711fcd9ca98 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/snapshot/TestSnapshotDiffReport.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/snapshot/TestSnapshotDiffReport.java
@@ -210,7 +210,12 @@ public class TestSnapshotDiffReport {
     report = hdfs.getSnapshotDiffReport(subsubsub1, "s0", "s2");
     System.out.println(report);
     assertEquals(0, report.getDiffList().size());
-    
+
+    // test path with scheme also works
+    report = hdfs.getSnapshotDiffReport(hdfs.makeQualified(subsubsub1), "s0", "s2");
+    System.out.println(report);
+    assertEquals(0, report.getDiffList().size());
+
     verifyDiffReport(sub1, "s0", "s2", 
         new DiffReportEntry(DiffType.MODIFY, DFSUtil.string2Bytes("")),
         new DiffReportEntry(DiffType.CREATE, DFSUtil.string2Bytes("file15")),