diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 432394715f..6716231bd9 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -270,6 +270,9 @@ Release 2.1.0-beta - UNRELEASED
     MAPREDUCE-5289. Updated MR App to use Token directly after YARN-717. (Jian He
     via vinodkv)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-5229. Put back FileOutputCommitter.TEMP_DIR_NAME in mapreduce for
+    binary compatibility with 1.x APIs. (Zhijie Shen via vinodkv)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     MAPREDUCE-4974. Optimising the LineRecordReader initialize() method 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/FileOutputCommitter.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/FileOutputCommitter.java
index 5b1e9a0c47..dbf915c24b 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/FileOutputCommitter.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/lib/output/FileOutputCommitter.java
@@ -49,6 +49,13 @@ public class FileOutputCommitter extends OutputCommitter {
    * committed yet.
    */
   public static final String PENDING_DIR_NAME = "_temporary";
+  /**
+   * Temporary directory name 
+   *
+   * The static variable to be compatible with M/R 1.x
+   */
+  @Deprecated
+  protected static final String TEMP_DIR_NAME = PENDING_DIR_NAME;
   public static final String SUCCEEDED_FILE_NAME = "_SUCCESS";
   public static final String SUCCESSFUL_JOB_OUTPUT_DIR_MARKER = 
     "mapreduce.fileoutputcommitter.marksuccessfuljobs";