diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index a0d1516a86c..1f1397ebcc3 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -132,6 +132,8 @@ New Features
 * SOLR-5556: Allow class of CollectionsHandler and InfoHandler to be specified
   in solr.xml. (Gregory Chanan, Alan Woodward)
 
+* SOLR-5581: Give ZkCLI the ability to get files. (Gregory Chanan via Mark Miller)
+
 Bug Fixes
 ----------------------
 
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLI.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLI.java
index 0222102f3e2..63d02dd88ba 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLI.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLI.java
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package org.apache.solr.cloud;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.CommandLine;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.CommandLineParser;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.HelpFormatter;
+import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.Option;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.OptionBuilder;
@@ -48,6 +49,8 @@ public class ZkCLI {
   private static final String MAKEPATH = "makepath";
   private static final String PUT = "put";
   private static final String PUT_FILE = "putfile";
+  private static final String GET = "get";
+  private static final String GET_FILE = "getfile";
   private static final String DOWNCONFIG = "downconfig";
   private static final String ZK_CLI_NAME = "ZkCLI";
   private static final String HELP = "help";
@@ -92,7 +95,7 @@ public class ZkCLI {
         .withDescription(
             "cmd to run: " + BOOTSTRAP + ", " + UPCONFIG + ", " + DOWNCONFIG
                 + ", " + LINKCONFIG + ", " + MAKEPATH + ", " + PUT + ", " + PUT_FILE + ","
-                + LIST + ", " + CLEAR).create(CMD));
+                + GET + "," + GET_FILE + ", " + LIST + ", " + CLEAR).create(CMD));
 
     Option zkHostOption = new Option("z", ZKHOST, true,
         "ZooKeeper host address");
@@ -137,6 +140,8 @@ public class ZkCLI {
         System.out.println("zkcli.sh -zkhost localhost:9983 -cmd " + MAKEPATH + " /apache/solr");
         System.out.println("zkcli.sh -zkhost localhost:9983 -cmd " + PUT + " /solr.conf 'conf data'");
         System.out.println("zkcli.sh -zkhost localhost:9983 -cmd " + PUT_FILE + " /solr.xml /User/myuser/solr/solr.xml");
+        System.out.println("zkcli.sh -zkhost localhost:9983 -cmd " + GET + " /solr.xml");
+        System.out.println("zkcli.sh -zkhost localhost:9983 -cmd " + GET_FILE + " /solr.xml solr.xml.file");
         System.out.println("zkcli.sh -zkhost localhost:9983 -cmd " + CLEAR + " /solr");
         System.out.println("zkcli.sh -zkhost localhost:9983 -cmd " + LIST);
         return;
@@ -264,6 +269,22 @@ public class ZkCLI {
             IOUtils.closeQuietly(is);
           }
 
+        } else if (line.getOptionValue(CMD).equals(GET)) {
+          List arglist = line.getArgList();
+          if (arglist.size() != 1) {
+            System.out.println("-" + GET + " requires one arg - the path to get");
+            System.exit(1);
+          }
+          byte [] data = zkClient.getData(arglist.get(0).toString(), null, null, true);
+          System.out.println(new String(data, "UTF-8"));
+        } else if (line.getOptionValue(CMD).equals(GET_FILE)) {
+          List arglist = line.getArgList();
+          if (arglist.size() != 2) {
+            System.out.println("-" + GET_FILE + "requires two args - the path to get and the file to save it to");
+            System.exit(1);
+          }
+          byte [] data = zkClient.getData(arglist.get(0).toString(), null, null, true);
+          FileUtils.writeByteArrayToFile(new File(arglist.get(1).toString()), data);
         }
       } finally {
         if (solrPort != null) {
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLITest.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLITest.java
index 79711ec8044..71f66a84da9 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLITest.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLITest.java
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ import org.apache.solr.common.cloud.SolrZkClient;
 import org.apache.solr.common.cloud.ZkNodeProps;
 import org.apache.solr.common.cloud.ZkStateReader;
 import org.apache.solr.util.ExternalPaths;
+import org.apache.zookeeper.CreateMode;
+import org.apache.zookeeper.KeeperException;
 import org.junit.AfterClass;
 import org.junit.BeforeClass;
 import org.junit.Test;
@@ -262,6 +264,47 @@ public class ZkCLITest extends SolrTestCaseJ4 {
     assertEquals(0, zkClient.getChildren("/", null, true).size());
   }
   
+  @Test
+  public void testGet() throws Exception {
+    String getNode = "/getNode";
+    byte [] data = new String("getNode-data").getBytes("UTF-8");
+    this.zkClient.create(getNode, data, CreateMode.PERSISTENT, true);
+    String[] args = new String[] {"-zkhost", zkServer.getZkAddress(), "-cmd",
+        "get", getNode};
+    ZkCLI.main(args);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testGetFile() throws Exception {
+    String getNode = "/getFileNode";
+    byte [] data = new String("getFileNode-data").getBytes("UTF-8");
+    this.zkClient.create(getNode, data, CreateMode.PERSISTENT, true);
+
+    File file = new File(TEMP_DIR,
+        "solrtest-getfile-" + this.getClass().getName() + "-" + System.currentTimeMillis());
+    String[] args = new String[] {"-zkhost", zkServer.getZkAddress(), "-cmd",
+        "getfile", getNode, file.getAbsolutePath()};
+    ZkCLI.main(args);
+
+    byte [] readData = FileUtils.readFileToByteArray(file);
+    assertArrayEquals(data, readData);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testGetFileNotExists() throws Exception {
+    String getNode = "/getFileNotExistsNode";
+
+    File file = new File(TEMP_DIR,
+        "solrtest-getfilenotexists-" + this.getClass().getName() + "-" + System.currentTimeMillis());
+    String[] args = new String[] {"-zkhost", zkServer.getZkAddress(), "-cmd",
+        "getfile", getNode, file.getAbsolutePath()};
+    try {
+      ZkCLI.main(args);
+      fail("Expected NoNodeException");
+    } catch (KeeperException.NoNodeException ex) {
+    }
+  }
+
   @Override
   public void tearDown() throws Exception {
     if (VERBOSE) {