diff --git a/bin/hbase-config.sh b/bin/hbase-config.sh
index 22ea1b1215b..536b5379b12 100644
--- a/bin/hbase-config.sh
+++ b/bin/hbase-config.sh
@@ -134,6 +134,10 @@ if [ -z "$HBASE_ENV_INIT" ] && [ -f "${HBASE_CONF_DIR}/hbase-env.sh" ]; then
   export HBASE_ENV_INIT="true"
 fi
 
+# These variables can be specified in hbase-env.sh, so these defines follow sourcing of that script.
+export GREP="${GREP-grep}"
+export SED="${SED-sed}"
+
 # Verify if hbase has the mlock agent
 if [ "$HBASE_REGIONSERVER_MLOCK" = "true" ]; then
   MLOCK_AGENT="$HBASE_HOME/lib/native/libmlockall_agent.so"
diff --git a/conf/hbase-env.sh b/conf/hbase-env.sh
index 74223bf70a0..f99373e653a 100644
--- a/conf/hbase-env.sh
+++ b/conf/hbase-env.sh
@@ -139,5 +139,5 @@
 # export HBASE_DISABLE_HADOOP_CLASSPATH_LOOKUP="true"
 
 # Override text processing tools for use by these launch scripts.
-export GREP="${GREP-grep}"
-export SED="${SED-sed}"
+# export GREP="${GREP-grep}"
+# export SED="${SED-sed}"