diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 5114027baea..e961f6c9dbf 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ Release 2.0.3-alpha - Unreleased
 
   NEW FEATURES
 
+    HADOOP-8597. Permit FsShell's text command to read Avro files.
+    (Ivan Vladimirov Ivanov via cutting)
+
   IMPROVEMENTS
 
     HADOOP-8789. Tests setLevel(Level.OFF) should be Level.ERROR.
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/Display.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/Display.java
index d80b2d6686a..036d8c99177 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/Display.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/Display.java
@@ -17,11 +17,21 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hadoop.fs.shell;
 
-import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.File;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.LinkedList;
 import java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream;
 
+import org.apache.avro.file.DataFileReader;
+import org.apache.avro.file.FileReader;
+import org.apache.avro.generic.GenericDatumReader;
+import org.apache.avro.generic.GenericDatumWriter;
+import org.apache.avro.io.DatumWriter;
+import org.apache.avro.io.EncoderFactory;
+import org.apache.avro.io.JsonEncoder;
+import org.apache.avro.Schema;
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience;
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceStability;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
@@ -38,6 +48,10 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.io.WritableComparable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.compress.CompressionCodec;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.compress.CompressionCodecFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.ReflectionUtils;
+import org.codehaus.jackson.JsonEncoding;
+import org.codehaus.jackson.JsonFactory;
+import org.codehaus.jackson.JsonGenerator;
+import org.codehaus.jackson.util.MinimalPrettyPrinter;
 
 /**
  * Display contents of files 
@@ -96,14 +110,14 @@ class Display extends FsCommand {
   
   /**
    * Same behavior as "-cat", but handles zip and TextRecordInputStream
-   * encodings. 
+   * and Avro encodings. 
    */ 
   public static class Text extends Cat {
     public static final String NAME = "text";
     public static final String USAGE = Cat.USAGE;
     public static final String DESCRIPTION =
       "Takes a source file and outputs the file in text format.\n" +
-      "The allowed formats are zip and TextRecordInputStream.";
+      "The allowed formats are zip and TextRecordInputStream and Avro.";
     
     @Override
     protected InputStream getInputStream(PathData item) throws IOException {
@@ -133,6 +147,13 @@ class Display extends FsCommand {
           }
           break;
         }
+        case 0x4f62: { // 'O' 'b'
+          if (i.readByte() == 'j') {
+            i.close();
+            return new AvroFileInputStream(item.stat);
+          }
+          break;
+        }
       }
 
       // File is non-compressed, or not a file container we know.
@@ -188,4 +209,68 @@ class Display extends FsCommand {
       super.close();
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * This class transforms a binary Avro data file into an InputStream
+   * with data that is in a human readable JSON format.
+   */
+  protected static class AvroFileInputStream extends InputStream {
+    private int pos;
+    private byte[] buffer;
+    private ByteArrayOutputStream output;
+    private FileReader fileReader;
+    private DatumWriter<Object> writer;
+    private JsonEncoder encoder;
+
+    public AvroFileInputStream(FileStatus status) throws IOException {
+      pos = 0;
+      buffer = new byte[0];
+      GenericDatumReader<Object> reader = new GenericDatumReader<Object>();
+      fileReader =
+        DataFileReader.openReader(new File(status.getPath().toUri()), reader);
+      Schema schema = fileReader.getSchema();
+      writer = new GenericDatumWriter<Object>(schema);
+      output = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+      JsonGenerator generator =
+        new JsonFactory().createJsonGenerator(output, JsonEncoding.UTF8);
+      MinimalPrettyPrinter prettyPrinter = new MinimalPrettyPrinter();
+      prettyPrinter.setRootValueSeparator(System.getProperty("line.separator"));
+      generator.setPrettyPrinter(prettyPrinter);
+      encoder = EncoderFactory.get().jsonEncoder(schema, generator);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Read a single byte from the stream.
+     */
+    @Override
+    public int read() throws IOException {
+      if (pos < buffer.length) {
+        return buffer[pos++];
+      }
+      if (!fileReader.hasNext()) {
+        return -1;
+      }
+      writer.write(fileReader.next(), encoder);
+      encoder.flush();
+      if (!fileReader.hasNext()) {
+        // Write a new line after the last Avro record.
+        output.write(System.getProperty("line.separator").getBytes());
+        output.flush();
+      }
+      pos = 0;
+      buffer = output.toByteArray();
+      output.reset();
+      return read();
+    }
+
+    /**
+      * Close the stream.
+      */
+    @Override
+    public void close() throws IOException {
+      fileReader.close();
+      output.close();
+      super.close();
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/TestTextCommand.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/TestTextCommand.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..99c1ae7b046
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/shell/TestTextCommand.java
@@ -0,0 +1,193 @@
+/**
+ * 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.fs.shell;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileOutputStream;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.StringWriter;
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
+
+import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+/**
+ * This class tests the logic for displaying the binary formats supported
+ * by the Text command.
+ */
+public class TestTextCommand {
+  private static final String TEST_ROOT_DIR =
+    System.getProperty("test.build.data", "build/test/data/") + "/testText";
+  private static final String AVRO_FILENAME = TEST_ROOT_DIR + "/weather.avro";
+
+  /**
+   * Tests whether binary Avro data files are displayed correctly.
+   */
+  @Test
+  public void testDisplayForAvroFiles() throws Exception {
+    // Create a small Avro data file on the local file system.
+    createAvroFile(generateWeatherAvroBinaryData());
+
+    // Prepare and call the Text command's protected getInputStream method
+    // using reflection.
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    File localPath = new File(AVRO_FILENAME);
+    PathData pathData = new PathData(localPath, conf);
+    Display.Text text = new Display.Text();
+    text.setConf(conf);
+    Method method = text.getClass().getDeclaredMethod(
+      "getInputStream", PathData.class);
+    method.setAccessible(true);
+    InputStream stream = (InputStream) method.invoke(text, pathData);
+    String output = inputStreamToString(stream);
+
+    // Check the output.
+    String expectedOutput =
+      "{\"station\":\"011990-99999\",\"time\":-619524000000,\"temp\":0}" +
+      System.getProperty("line.separator") +
+      "{\"station\":\"011990-99999\",\"time\":-619506000000,\"temp\":22}" +
+      System.getProperty("line.separator") +
+      "{\"station\":\"011990-99999\",\"time\":-619484400000,\"temp\":-11}" +
+      System.getProperty("line.separator") +
+      "{\"station\":\"012650-99999\",\"time\":-655531200000,\"temp\":111}" +
+      System.getProperty("line.separator") +
+      "{\"station\":\"012650-99999\",\"time\":-655509600000,\"temp\":78}" +
+      System.getProperty("line.separator");
+
+    assertEquals(expectedOutput, output);
+  }
+
+  private String inputStreamToString(InputStream stream) throws IOException {
+    StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
+    IOUtils.copy(stream, writer);
+    return writer.toString();
+  }
+
+  private void createAvroFile(byte[] contents) throws IOException {
+    (new File(TEST_ROOT_DIR)).mkdir();
+    File file = new File(AVRO_FILENAME);
+    file.createNewFile();
+    FileOutputStream stream = new FileOutputStream(file);
+    stream.write(contents);
+    stream.close();
+  }
+
+  private byte[] generateWeatherAvroBinaryData() {
+    // The contents of a simple binary Avro file with weather records.
+    byte[] contents = {
+      (byte) 0x4f, (byte) 0x62, (byte) 0x6a, (byte)  0x1,
+      (byte)  0x4, (byte) 0x14, (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x76,
+      (byte) 0x72, (byte) 0x6f, (byte) 0x2e, (byte) 0x63,
+      (byte) 0x6f, (byte) 0x64, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x63,
+      (byte)  0x8, (byte) 0x6e, (byte) 0x75, (byte) 0x6c,
+      (byte) 0x6c, (byte) 0x16, (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x76,
+      (byte) 0x72, (byte) 0x6f, (byte) 0x2e, (byte) 0x73,
+      (byte) 0x63, (byte) 0x68, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x6d,
+      (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0xf2, (byte)  0x2, (byte) 0x7b,
+      (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x79, (byte) 0x70,
+      (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x72, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x63, (byte) 0x6f,
+      (byte) 0x72, (byte) 0x64, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x2c,
+      (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x6e, (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x6d,
+      (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x57, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x74,
+      (byte) 0x68, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x72, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x2c, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x6e, (byte) 0x61,
+      (byte) 0x6d, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x73, (byte) 0x70,
+      (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x63, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x65,
+      (byte) 0x73, (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x2c,
+      (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x66, (byte) 0x69, (byte) 0x65,
+      (byte) 0x6c, (byte) 0x64, (byte) 0x73, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x5b, (byte) 0x7b, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x6e, (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x6d, (byte) 0x65,
+      (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x73,
+      (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x69,
+      (byte) 0x6f, (byte) 0x6e, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x2c,
+      (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x79, (byte) 0x70,
+      (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x73, (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x72, (byte) 0x69,
+      (byte) 0x6e, (byte) 0x67, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x7d,
+      (byte) 0x2c, (byte) 0x7b, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x6e,
+      (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x6d, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x69,
+      (byte) 0x6d, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x2c,
+      (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x79, (byte) 0x70,
+      (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x6c, (byte) 0x6f, (byte) 0x6e, (byte) 0x67,
+      (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x7d, (byte) 0x2c, (byte) 0x7b,
+      (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x6e, (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x6d,
+      (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x6d, (byte) 0x70,
+      (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x2c, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x74,
+      (byte) 0x79, (byte) 0x70, (byte) 0x65, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x69, (byte) 0x6e,
+      (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x7d, (byte) 0x5d,
+      (byte) 0x2c, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x64, (byte) 0x6f,
+      (byte) 0x63, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x3a, (byte) 0x22,
+      (byte) 0x41, (byte) 0x20, (byte) 0x77, (byte) 0x65,
+      (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x74, (byte) 0x68, (byte) 0x65,
+      (byte) 0x72, (byte) 0x20, (byte) 0x72, (byte) 0x65,
+      (byte) 0x61, (byte) 0x64, (byte) 0x69, (byte) 0x6e,
+      (byte) 0x67, (byte) 0x2e, (byte) 0x22, (byte) 0x7d,
+      (byte)  0x0, (byte) 0xb0, (byte) 0x81, (byte) 0xb3,
+      (byte) 0xc4, (byte)  0xa, (byte)  0xc, (byte) 0xf6,
+      (byte) 0x62, (byte) 0xfa, (byte) 0xc9, (byte) 0x38,
+      (byte) 0xfd, (byte) 0x7e, (byte) 0x52, (byte)  0x0,
+      (byte) 0xa7, (byte)  0xa, (byte) 0xcc, (byte)  0x1,
+      (byte) 0x18, (byte) 0x30, (byte) 0x31, (byte) 0x31,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x30, (byte) 0x2d,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0xff, (byte) 0xa3, (byte) 0x90,
+      (byte) 0xe8, (byte) 0x87, (byte) 0x24, (byte)  0x0,
+      (byte) 0x18, (byte) 0x30, (byte) 0x31, (byte) 0x31,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x30, (byte) 0x2d,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0xff, (byte) 0x81, (byte) 0xfb,
+      (byte) 0xd6, (byte) 0x87, (byte) 0x24, (byte) 0x2c,
+      (byte) 0x18, (byte) 0x30, (byte) 0x31, (byte) 0x31,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x30, (byte) 0x2d,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0xff, (byte) 0xa5, (byte) 0xae,
+      (byte) 0xc2, (byte) 0x87, (byte) 0x24, (byte) 0x15,
+      (byte) 0x18, (byte) 0x30, (byte) 0x31, (byte) 0x32,
+      (byte) 0x36, (byte) 0x35, (byte) 0x30, (byte) 0x2d,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0xff, (byte) 0xb7, (byte) 0xa2,
+      (byte) 0x8b, (byte) 0x94, (byte) 0x26, (byte) 0xde,
+      (byte)  0x1, (byte) 0x18, (byte) 0x30, (byte) 0x31,
+      (byte) 0x32, (byte) 0x36, (byte) 0x35, (byte) 0x30,
+      (byte) 0x2d, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39,
+      (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0x39, (byte) 0xff, (byte) 0xdb,
+      (byte) 0xd5, (byte) 0xf6, (byte) 0x93, (byte) 0x26,
+      (byte) 0x9c, (byte)  0x1, (byte) 0xb0, (byte) 0x81,
+      (byte) 0xb3, (byte) 0xc4, (byte)  0xa, (byte)  0xc,
+      (byte) 0xf6, (byte) 0x62, (byte) 0xfa, (byte) 0xc9,
+      (byte) 0x38, (byte) 0xfd, (byte) 0x7e, (byte) 0x52,
+      (byte)  0x0, (byte) 0xa7,
+    };
+
+    return contents;
+  }
+}
+