diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/EditLogFileOutputStream.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/EditLogFileOutputStream.java
index 4919ea44e0..493a542d1b 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/EditLogFileOutputStream.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/EditLogFileOutputStream.java
@@ -84,9 +84,9 @@ public EditLogFileOutputStream(Configuration conf, File name, int size)
     doubleBuf = new EditsDoubleBuffer(size);
     RandomAccessFile rp;
     if (shouldSyncWritesAndSkipFsync) {
-      rp = new RandomAccessFile(name, "rws");
-    } else {
       rp = new RandomAccessFile(name, "rw");
+    } else {
+      rp = new RandomAccessFile(name, "rws");
     }
     fp = new FileOutputStream(rp.getFD()); // open for append
     fc = rp.getChannel();