diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index e3a34e9222d..98aae27047b 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
+    HADOOP-1527 Region server won't start because logdir exists
     HADOOP-1723 If master asks region server to shut down, by-pass return of
     shutdown message
     HADOOP-1729 Recent renaming or META tables breaks hbase shell
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HLog.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HLog.java
index d51a71ee753..93375c3d129 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HLog.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HLog.java
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ public class HLog implements HConstants {
   long filenum = 0;
   AtomicInteger numEntries = new AtomicInteger(0);
 
-  Integer rollLock = new Integer(0);
+  Integer rollLock = Integer.valueOf(0);
 
   /**
    * Split up a bunch of log files, that are no longer being written to,
@@ -439,35 +439,61 @@ public class HLog implements HConstants {
     notifyAll();
   }
 
+  private static void usage() {
+    System.err.println("Usage: java org.apache.hbase.HLog" +
+        " {--dump <logfile>... | --split <logdir>...}");
+  }
+  
   /**
-   * Pass a log file and it will dump out a text version on
-   * <code>stdout</code>.
+   * Pass one or more log file names and it will either dump out a text version
+   * on <code>stdout</code> or split the specified log files.
    * @param args
    * @throws IOException
    */
   public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
-    if (args.length < 1) {
-      System.err.println("Usage: java org.apache.hbase.HLog <logfile>");
+    if (args.length < 2) {
+      usage();
       System.exit(-1);
     }
+    boolean dump = true;
+    if (args[0].compareTo("--dump") != 0) {
+      if (args[0].compareTo("--split") == 0) {
+        dump = false;
+        
+      } else {
+        usage();
+        System.exit(-1);
+      }
+    }
     Configuration conf = new HBaseConfiguration();
     FileSystem fs = FileSystem.get(conf);
-    Path logfile = new Path(args[0]);
-    if (!fs.exists(logfile)) {
-      throw new FileNotFoundException(args[0] + " does not exist");
-    }
-    if (!fs.isFile(logfile)) {
-      throw new IOException(args[0] + " is not a file");
-    }
-    Reader log = new SequenceFile.Reader(fs, logfile, conf);
-    try {
-      HLogKey key = new HLogKey();
-      HLogEdit val = new HLogEdit();
-      while(log.next(key, val)) {
-        System.out.println(key.toString() + " " + val.toString());
+    Path baseDir = new Path(conf.get(HBASE_DIR, DEFAULT_HBASE_DIR));
+    
+    for (int i = 1; i < args.length; i++) {
+      Path logPath = new Path(args[i]);
+      if (!fs.exists(logPath)) {
+        throw new FileNotFoundException(args[i] + " does not exist");
+      }
+      if (dump) {
+        if (!fs.isFile(logPath)) {
+          throw new IOException(args[i] + " is not a file");
+        }
+        Reader log = new SequenceFile.Reader(fs, logPath, conf);
+        try {
+          HLogKey key = new HLogKey();
+          HLogEdit val = new HLogEdit();
+          while(log.next(key, val)) {
+            System.out.println(key.toString() + " " + val.toString());
+          }
+        } finally {
+          log.close();
+        }
+      } else {
+        if (!fs.getFileStatus(logPath).isDir()) {
+          throw new IOException(args[i] + " is not a directory");
+        }
+        splitLog(baseDir, logPath, fs, conf);
       }
-    } finally {
-      log.close();
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HMaster.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HMaster.java
index 8a02d16f09a..4d7b5ea00c8 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HMaster.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HMaster.java
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;
+import java.util.concurrent.locks.Lock;
+import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock;
 
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
@@ -101,6 +103,8 @@ HMasterRegionInterface, Runnable {
   long metaRescanInterval;
 
   final AtomicReference<HServerAddress> rootRegionLocation;
+  
+  Lock splitLogLock = new ReentrantLock();
 
   /**
    * Base HRegion scanner class. Holds utilty common to <code>ROOT</code> and
@@ -424,7 +428,32 @@ HMasterRegionInterface, Runnable {
           pendingRegions.contains(info.regionName))
           && (storedInfo == null || storedInfo.getStartCode() != startCode)) {
         
-        // The current assignment is no good; load the region.
+        // The current assignment is no good
+        
+        // Recover the region server's log if there is one.
+        
+        if (serverName.length() != 0) {
+          StringBuilder dirName = new StringBuilder("log_");
+          dirName.append(serverName.replace(":", "_"));
+          Path logDir = new Path(dir, dirName.toString());
+          try {
+            if (fs.exists(logDir)) {
+              splitLogLock.lock();
+              try {
+                HLog.splitLog(dir, logDir, fs, conf);
+
+              } finally {
+                splitLogLock.unlock();
+              }
+            }
+            
+          } catch (IOException e) {
+            LOG.warn("unable to split region server log because: ", e);
+          }
+        }
+        
+        // Now get the region assigned
+        
         unassignedRegions.put(info.regionName, info);
         assignAttempts.put(info.regionName, Long.valueOf(0L));
       }
@@ -513,7 +542,7 @@ HMasterRegionInterface, Runnable {
 
   private RootScanner rootScanner;
   private Thread rootScannerThread;
-  Integer rootScannerLock = new Integer(0);
+  Integer rootScannerLock = Integer.valueOf(0);
 
   @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
   static class MetaRegion implements Comparable {
@@ -702,7 +731,7 @@ HMasterRegionInterface, Runnable {
 
   MetaScanner metaScanner;
   private Thread metaScannerThread;
-  Integer metaScannerLock = new Integer(0);
+  Integer metaScannerLock = Integer.valueOf(0);
 
   /**
    * The 'unassignedRegions' table maps from a region name to a HRegionInfo 
@@ -1832,9 +1861,23 @@ HMasterRegionInterface, Runnable {
       if (!logSplit) {
         // Process the old log file
 
-        HLog.splitLog(dir, new Path(dir, "log" + "_" +
-            deadServer.getBindAddress() + "_" + deadServer.getPort()), fs, conf);
+        StringBuilder dirName = new StringBuilder("log_");
+        dirName.append(deadServer.getBindAddress());
+        dirName.append("_");
+        dirName.append(deadServer.getPort());
+        Path logdir = new Path(dir, dirName.toString());
 
+        if (fs.exists(logdir)) {
+          if (!splitLogLock.tryLock()) {
+            return false;
+          }
+          try {
+            HLog.splitLog(dir, logdir, fs, conf);
+
+          } finally {
+            splitLogLock.unlock();
+          }
+        }
         logSplit = true;
       }
 
@@ -2154,8 +2197,8 @@ HMasterRegionInterface, Runnable {
             // We can't proceed until the root region is online and has been scanned
             if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
               LOG.debug("root region: " + 
-                ((rootRegionLocation != null)?
-                  rootRegionLocation.toString(): "null") +
+                ((rootRegionLocation.get() != null)?
+                  rootRegionLocation.get().toString(): "null") +
                 ", rootScanned: " + rootScanned);
             }
             return false;
@@ -2946,7 +2989,9 @@ HMasterRegionInterface, Runnable {
       // the PendingServerShutdown operation has a chance to split the log file.
 
       try {
-        msgQueue.put(new PendingServerShutdown(info));
+        if (info != null) {
+          msgQueue.put(new PendingServerShutdown(info));
+        }
       } catch (InterruptedException e) {
         throw new RuntimeException("Putting into msgQueue was interrupted.", e);
       }
diff --git a/src/test/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TestRegionServerAbort.java b/src/test/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TestRegionServerAbort.java
index 1fff888e477..7a10a818fce 100644
--- a/src/test/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TestRegionServerAbort.java
+++ b/src/test/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TestRegionServerAbort.java
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ public class TestRegionServerAbort extends HBaseClusterTestCase {
     super(2);
     conf.setInt("ipc.client.timeout", 5000);            // reduce client timeout
     conf.setInt("ipc.client.connect.max.retries", 5);   // and number of retries
-    conf.setInt("hbase.client.retries.number", 3);      // reduce HBase retries
+    conf.setInt("hbase.client.retries.number", 5);      // reduce HBase retries
     Logger.getRootLogger().setLevel(Level.WARN);
     Logger.getLogger(this.getClass().getPackage().getName()).setLevel(Level.DEBUG);
   }