diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 22917ec8c8..cf1c7d1696 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1697,6 +1697,9 @@ Release 0.23.0 - Unreleased
 
     MAPREDUCE-2693. Fix NPE in job-blacklisting. (Hitesh Shah via acmurthy) 
 
+    MAPREDUCE-3208. Fix NPE task/container log appenders. (liangzhwa via
+    acmurthy) 
+
 Release 0.22.0 - Unreleased
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TaskLogAppender.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TaskLogAppender.java
index d60b64a409..0b79837f62 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TaskLogAppender.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TaskLogAppender.java
@@ -93,7 +93,9 @@ public void append(LoggingEvent event) {
   }
   
   public void flush() {
-    qw.flush();
+    if (qw != null) {
+      qw.flush();
+    }
   }
 
   @Override
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/ContainerLogAppender.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/ContainerLogAppender.java
index ac4a61f934..7f09c175b6 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/ContainerLogAppender.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/ContainerLogAppender.java
@@ -65,7 +65,9 @@ public void append(LoggingEvent event) {
   }
   
   public void flush() {
-    qw.flush();
+    if (qw != null) {
+      qw.flush();
+    }
   }
 
   @Override