diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index c4dcd34a36..682b89a6f5 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -902,6 +902,9 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HADOOP-6172. Fix jar file names in hadoop-config.sh and include ${build.src}
     as a part of the source list in build.xml.  (Hong Tang via szetszwo)
 
+    HADOOP-6124. Fix javac warning detection in test-patch.sh.  (Giridharan
+    Kesavan via szetszwo)
+
 Release 0.20.1 - Unreleased
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/src/test/bin/test-patch.sh b/src/test/bin/test-patch.sh
index 68560e48c6..ccfdccc2da 100755
--- a/src/test/bin/test-patch.sh
+++ b/src/test/bin/test-patch.sh
@@ -307,9 +307,14 @@ checkJavacWarnings () {
   echo "======================================================================"
   echo ""
   echo ""
-  echo "$ANT_HOME/bin/ant -Dversion="${VERSION}" -Djavac.args="-Xlint -Xmaxwarns 1000" $ECLIPSE_PROPERTY -Djava5.home=${JAVA5_HOME} -Dforrest.home=${FORREST_HOME} -DHadoopPatchProcess= tar > $PATCH_DIR/patchJavacWarnings.txt 2>&1"
-  $ANT_HOME/bin/ant -Dversion="${VERSION}" -Djavac.args="-Xlint -Xmaxwarns 1000" $ECLIPSE_PROPERTY -Djava5.home=${JAVA5_HOME} -Dforrest.home=${FORREST_HOME} -DHadoopPatchProcess= tar > $PATCH_DIR/patchJavacWarnings.txt 2>&1
+  echo "$ANT_HOME/bin/ant -Dversion="${VERSION}" -Djavac.args="-Xlint -Xmaxwarns 1000" $ECLIPSE_PROPERTY -Djava5.home=${JAVA5_HOME} -Dforrest.home=${FORREST_HOME} -DHadoopPatchProcess= clean tar > $PATCH_DIR/patchJavacWarnings.txt 2>&1"
+  $ANT_HOME/bin/ant -Dversion="${VERSION}" -Djavac.args="-Xlint -Xmaxwarns 1000" $ECLIPSE_PROPERTY -Djava5.home=${JAVA5_HOME} -Dforrest.home=${FORREST_HOME} -DHadoopPatchProcess= clean tar > $PATCH_DIR/patchJavacWarnings.txt 2>&1
+  if [[ $? != 0 ]] ; then
+    JIRA_COMMENT="$JIRA_COMMENT
 
+    -1 javac.  The patch appears to cause tar ant target to fail."
+    return 1
+  fi
   ### Compare trunk and patch javac warning numbers
   if [[ -f $PATCH_DIR/patchJavacWarnings.txt ]] ; then
     trunkJavacWarnings=`$GREP -o '\[javac\] [0-9]* warning' $PATCH_DIR/trunkJavacWarnings.txt | awk '{total += $2} END {print total}'`