diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/GetJavaProperty.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/GetJavaProperty.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..361334db20f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/GetJavaProperty.java
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright 2012 The Apache Software Foundation
+ *
+ * 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.hbase.util;
+
+/**
+ * A generic way for querying Java properties.
+ */
+public class GetJavaProperty {
+  public static void main(String args[]) {
+    if (args.length == 0) {
+      for (Object prop: System.getProperties().keySet()) {
+        System.out.println(prop + "=" + System.getProperty((String)prop, ""));
+      }
+    } else {
+      for (String prop: args) {
+        System.out.println(System.getProperty(prop, ""));
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}