diff --git a/dev-support/smart-apply-patch.sh b/dev-support/smart-apply-patch.sh
index 3334c2bd88..c5386b4a2b 100755
--- a/dev-support/smart-apply-patch.sh
+++ b/dev-support/smart-apply-patch.sh
@@ -53,16 +53,22 @@ if ! grep -qv '^a/\|^b/' $TMP ; then
   sed -i -e 's,^[ab]/,,' $TMP
 fi
 
-# if all of the lines start with common/, hdfs/, or mapreduce/, this is
+PREFIX_DIRS=$(cut -d '/' -f 1 $TMP | sort | uniq)
+
+# if we are at the project root then nothing more to do
+if [[ -d hadoop-common ]]; then
+  echo Looks like this is being run at project root
+
+# if all of the lines start with hadoop-common/, hdfs/, or mapreduce/, this is
 # relative to the hadoop root instead of the subproject root, so we need
 # to chop off another layer
-PREFIX_DIRS=$(cut -d '/' -f 1 $TMP | sort | uniq)
-if [[ "$PREFIX_DIRS" =~ ^(hdfs|common|mapreduce)$ ]]; then
+elif [[ "$PREFIX_DIRS" =~ ^(hdfs|hadoop-common|mapreduce)$ ]]; then
 
   echo Looks like this is relative to project root. Increasing PLEVEL
   PLEVEL=$[$PLEVEL + 1]
-elif ! echo "$PREFIX_DIRS" | grep -vxq 'common\|hdfs\|mapreduce' ; then
-  echo Looks like this is a cross-subproject patch. Not supported!
+
+elif ! echo "$PREFIX_DIRS" | grep -vxq 'hadoop-common\|hdfs\|mapreduce' ; then
+  echo Looks like this is a cross-subproject patch. Try applying from the project root
   exit 1
 fi
 
diff --git a/dev-support/test-patch.properties b/dev-support/test-patch.properties
index f6fcdfca08..2f1a994ceb 100644
--- a/dev-support/test-patch.properties
+++ b/dev-support/test-patch.properties
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
+# The number of acceptable warning for *all* modules
+# Please update the per-module test-patch.properties if you update this file.
+
 OK_RELEASEAUDIT_WARNINGS=0
 OK_FINDBUGS_WARNINGS=0
 OK_JAVADOC_WARNINGS=6
diff --git a/dev-support/test-patch.sh b/dev-support/test-patch.sh
index 46413c8947..536bee8cd3 100755
--- a/dev-support/test-patch.sh
+++ b/dev-support/test-patch.sh
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@ ulimit -n 1024
 ### SVN_REVISION and BUILD_URL are set by Hudson if it is run by patch process
 ### Read variables from properties file
 bindir=$(dirname $0)
-. $bindir/test-patch.properties
 
 # Defaults
 if [ -z "$MAVEN_HOME" ]; then
@@ -232,6 +231,7 @@ setup () {
       cleanupAndExit 0
     fi
   fi
+  . $BASEDIR/dev-support/test-patch.properties
   ### exit if warnings are NOT defined in the properties file
   if [ -z "$OK_FINDBUGS_WARNINGS" ] || [[ -z "$OK_JAVADOC_WARNINGS" ]] || [[ -z $OK_RELEASEAUDIT_WARNINGS ]]; then
     echo "Please define the following properties in test-patch.properties file"
@@ -367,8 +367,12 @@ checkJavadocWarnings () {
   echo ""
   echo ""
   echo "$MVN clean compile javadoc:javadoc -DskipTests -Pdocs -D${PROJECT_NAME}PatchProcess > $PATCH_DIR/patchJavadocWarnings.txt 2>&1"
-  (cd hadoop-project; mvn install)
-  (cd hadoop-annotations; mvn install)
+  if [ -d hadoop-project ]; then
+    (cd hadoop-project; $MVN install)
+  fi
+  if [ -d hadoop-annotations ]; then  
+    (cd hadoop-annotations; $MVN install)
+  fi
   $MVN clean compile javadoc:javadoc -DskipTests -Pdocs -D${PROJECT_NAME}PatchProcess > $PATCH_DIR/patchJavadocWarnings.txt 2>&1
   javadocWarnings=`$GREP '\[WARNING\]' $PATCH_DIR/patchJavadocWarnings.txt | $AWK '/Javadoc Warnings/,EOF' | $GREP warning | $AWK 'BEGIN {total = 0} {total += 1} END {print total}'`
   echo ""
@@ -525,18 +529,29 @@ checkFindbugsWarnings () {
     -1 findbugs.  The patch appears to cause Findbugs (version ${findbugs_version}) to fail."
     return 1
   fi
-JIRA_COMMENT_FOOTER="Findbugs warnings: $BUILD_URL/artifact/trunk/target/newPatchFindbugsWarnings.html
+    
+  findbugsWarnings=0
+  for file in $(find $BASEDIR -name findbugsXml.xml)
+  do
+    relative_file=${file#$BASEDIR/} # strip leading $BASEDIR prefix
+    if [ ! $relative_file == "target/findbugsXml.xml" ]; then
+      module_suffix=${relative_file%/target/findbugsXml.xml} # strip trailing path
+    fi
+    
+    cp $file $PATCH_DIR/patchFindbugsWarnings${module_suffix}.xml
+    $FINDBUGS_HOME/bin/setBugDatabaseInfo -timestamp "01/01/2000" \
+      $PATCH_DIR/patchFindbugsWarnings${module_suffix}.xml \
+      $PATCH_DIR/patchFindbugsWarnings${module_suffix}.xml
+    newFindbugsWarnings=`$FINDBUGS_HOME/bin/filterBugs -first "01/01/2000" $PATCH_DIR/patchFindbugsWarnings${module_suffix}.xml \
+      $PATCH_DIR/newPatchFindbugsWarnings${module_suffix}.xml | $AWK '{print $1}'`
+    echo "Found $newFindbugsWarnings Findbugs warnings ($file)"
+    findbugsWarnings=$((findbugsWarnings+newFindbugsWarnings))
+    $FINDBUGS_HOME/bin/convertXmlToText -html \
+      $PATCH_DIR/newPatchFindbugsWarnings${module_suffix}.xml \
+      $PATCH_DIR/newPatchFindbugsWarnings${module_suffix}.html
+    JIRA_COMMENT_FOOTER="Findbugs warnings: $BUILD_URL/artifact/trunk/target/newPatchFindbugsWarnings${module_suffix}.html
 $JIRA_COMMENT_FOOTER"
-  
-  cp $BASEDIR/hadoop-common/target/findbugsXml.xml $PATCH_DIR/patchFindbugsWarnings.xml
-  $FINDBUGS_HOME/bin/setBugDatabaseInfo -timestamp "01/01/2000" \
-    $PATCH_DIR/patchFindbugsWarnings.xml \
-    $PATCH_DIR/patchFindbugsWarnings.xml
-  findbugsWarnings=`$FINDBUGS_HOME/bin/filterBugs -first "01/01/2000" $PATCH_DIR/patchFindbugsWarnings.xml \
-    $PATCH_DIR/newPatchFindbugsWarnings.xml | $AWK '{print $1}'`
-  $FINDBUGS_HOME/bin/convertXmlToText -html \
-    $PATCH_DIR/newPatchFindbugsWarnings.xml \
-    $PATCH_DIR/newPatchFindbugsWarnings.html
+  done
 
   ### if current warnings greater than OK_FINDBUGS_WARNINGS
   if [[ $findbugsWarnings > $OK_FINDBUGS_WARNINGS ]] ; then
diff --git a/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 2af305d670..b1a332fa1c 100644
--- a/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -472,6 +472,9 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HADOOP-7528. Maven build fails in Windows. (Alejandro Abdelnur via
     tomwhite)
 
+    HADOOP-7533. Allow test-patch to be run from any subproject directory.
+    (tomwhite)
+
 Release 0.22.0 - Unreleased
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-common/dev-support/test-patch.properties b/hadoop-common/dev-support/test-patch.properties
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..15b54bfcf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-common/dev-support/test-patch.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# 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.
+
+# The number of acceptable warning for this module
+# Please update the root test-patch.properties if you update this file.
+
+OK_RELEASEAUDIT_WARNINGS=0
+OK_FINDBUGS_WARNINGS=0
+OK_JAVADOC_WARNINGS=6