diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index af95486f1e8..ecabd703959 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -746,6 +746,9 @@ Release 2.4.0 - UNRELEASED
 
     HDFS-5747. Fix NPEs in BlockManager. (Arpit Agarwal)
 
+    HDFS-5710. FSDirectory#getFullPathName should check inodes against null.
+    (Uma Maheswara Rao G via jing9)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-2832 SUBTASKS AND RELATED JIRAS
 
     HDFS-4985. Add storage type to the protocol and expose it in block report
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSDirectory.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSDirectory.java
index a9f17fa3bd2..011bcf26ba4 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSDirectory.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSDirectory.java
@@ -1842,7 +1842,8 @@ private static INode[] getFullPathINodes(INode inode) {
   /** Return the full path name of the specified inode */
   static String getFullPathName(INode inode) {
     INode[] inodes = getFullPathINodes(inode);
-    return getFullPathName(inodes, inodes.length - 1);
+    // inodes can be null only when its called without holding lock
+    return inodes == null ? "" : getFullPathName(inodes, inodes.length - 1);
   }
   
   /**