diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 7b04eb83a7f..5d773deb3d7 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ Release 0.3.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-820   Need mainline to flush when 'Blocking updates' goes up.
                (Jean-Daniel Cryans via Stack)
    HBASE-821   UnknownScanner happens too often (Jean-Daniel Cryans via Stack)
+   HBASE-813   Add a row counter in the new shell (Jean-Daniel Cryans via Stack)
 
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
diff --git a/bin/Formatter.rb b/bin/Formatter.rb
index b0be20613c4..3af13d60a77 100644
--- a/bin/Formatter.rb
+++ b/bin/Formatter.rb
@@ -97,12 +97,15 @@ module Formatter
       @out.printf(spec, str)
     end
 
-    def footer(startTime = nil)
+    def footer(startTime = nil, rowCount = nil)
+      if not rowCount
+        rowCount = @rowCount
+      end
       if not startTime
         return
       end
       # Only output elapsed time and row count if startTime passed
-      @out.puts("%d row(s) in %.4f seconds" % [@rowCount, Time.now - startTime])
+      @out.puts("%d row(s) in %.4f seconds" % [rowCount, Time.now - startTime])
     end
   end
      
diff --git a/bin/HBase.rb b/bin/HBase.rb
index 836dbe2cae7..305ce321532 100644
--- a/bin/HBase.rb
+++ b/bin/HBase.rb
@@ -346,6 +346,26 @@ module HBase
       end
       @formatter.footer(now)
     end
+    
+    def count(interval = 1000)
+      now = Time.now
+      columns = getAllColumns()
+      cs = columns.to_java(java.lang.String)
+      s = @table.getScanner(cs)
+      count = 0
+      i = s.iterator()
+      @formatter.header("Count may take a long time to complete!")
+      while i.hasNext()
+        r = i.next()
+        count += 1
+        if count % interval == 0
+          @formatter.row(["Current count: " + count.to_s + ", row: " + \
+            (String.from_java_bytes r.getRow())])
+        end
+      end
+      @formatter.footer(now, count)
+    end
+    
   end
 
   # Testing. To run this test, there needs to be an hbase cluster up and
diff --git a/bin/hirb.rb b/bin/hirb.rb
index 0687e409b7f..fe853561c57 100644
--- a/bin/hirb.rb
+++ b/bin/hirb.rb
@@ -113,6 +113,14 @@ HBASE SHELL COMMANDS:
            cell VERSIONS, do:
 
            hbase> alter 't1', {NAME => 'f1', VERSIONS => 5}
+           
+ count     Count the number of rows in a table. This operation may take a LONG
+           time (Run '$HADOOP_HOME/bin/hadoop jar hbase.jar rowcount' to run a
+           counting mapreduce job). Current count is shown every 1000 rows by
+           default. Count interval may be optionally specified. Examples:
+           
+           hbase> count 't1'
+           hbase> count 't1', 100000
 
  create    Create table; pass table name, a dictionary of specifications per
            column family, and optionally a dictionary of table configuration.
@@ -273,6 +281,10 @@ def deleteall(table, row, column = nil,
   table(table).deleteall(row, column, timestamp)
 end
 
+def count(table, interval = 1000)
+  table(table).count(interval)
+end
+
 # Output a banner message that tells users where to go for help
 puts <<HERE
 HBase Shell; enter 'help<RETURN>' for list of supported commands.