diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 98656dfa6d0..5621586f185 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -310,6 +310,8 @@ Release 2.0.5-beta - UNRELEASED
     MAPREDUCE-5128. mapred-default.xml is missing a bunch of history server 
     configs. (sandyr via tucu)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-4898. FileOutputFormat.checkOutputSpecs and FileOutputFormat.setOutputPath incompatible with MR1. (rkanter via tucu)
+
 Release 2.0.4-alpha - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/FileOutputFormat.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/FileOutputFormat.java
index a02f15e2f6f..60345a426e4 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/FileOutputFormat.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/FileOutputFormat.java
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.compress.CompressionCodec;
-import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileAlreadyExistsException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.FileAlreadyExistsException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.InvalidJobConfException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.Job;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.JobContext;
@@ -150,9 +150,14 @@ public static final String OUTDIR = "mapreduce.output.fileoutputformat.outputdir
    * @param outputDir the {@link Path} of the output directory for 
    * the map-reduce job.
    */
-  public static void setOutputPath(Job job, Path outputDir) throws IOException {
-    outputDir = outputDir.getFileSystem(job.getConfiguration()).makeQualified(
-        outputDir);
+  public static void setOutputPath(Job job, Path outputDir) {
+    try {
+      outputDir = outputDir.getFileSystem(job.getConfiguration()).makeQualified(
+          outputDir);
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+        // Throw the IOException as a RuntimeException to be compatible with MR1
+        throw new RuntimeException(e);
+    }
     job.getConfiguration().set(FileOutputFormat.OUTDIR, outputDir.toString());
   }
 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/TestFileOutputFormat.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/TestFileOutputFormat.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a48fe3be2ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/TestFileOutputFormat.java
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.output;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import junit.framework.TestCase;
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.FileAlreadyExistsException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.Job;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.RecordWriter;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.TaskAttemptContext;
+
+public class TestFileOutputFormat extends TestCase {
+
+  public void testSetOutputPathException() throws Exception {
+    Job job = Job.getInstance();
+    try {
+      // Give it an invalid filesystem so it'll throw an exception
+      FileOutputFormat.setOutputPath(job, new Path("foo:///bar"));
+      fail("Should have thrown a RuntimeException with an IOException inside");
+    }
+    catch (RuntimeException re) {
+      assertTrue(re.getCause() instanceof IOException);
+    }
+  }
+
+  public void testCheckOutputSpecsException() throws Exception {
+    Job job = Job.getInstance();
+    Path outDir = new Path(System.getProperty("test.build.data", "/tmp"),
+            "output");
+    FileSystem fs = outDir.getFileSystem(new Configuration());
+    // Create the output dir so it already exists and set it for the job
+    fs.mkdirs(outDir);
+    FileOutputFormat.setOutputPath(job, outDir);
+    // We don't need a "full" implementation of FileOutputFormat for this test
+    FileOutputFormat fof = new FileOutputFormat() {
+      @Override
+        public RecordWriter getRecordWriter(TaskAttemptContext job)
+              throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+          return null;
+        }
+    };
+    try {
+      try {
+        // This should throw a FileAlreadyExistsException because the outputDir
+        // already exists
+        fof.checkOutputSpecs(job);
+        fail("Should have thrown a FileAlreadyExistsException");
+      }
+      catch (FileAlreadyExistsException re) {
+        // correct behavior
+      }
+    }
+    finally {
+      // Cleanup
+      if (fs.exists(outDir)) {
+        fs.delete(outDir, true);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}