diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index b879f62bef..26a4603bc6 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -179,6 +179,9 @@ Release 2.0.0 - UNRELEASED
     MAPREDUCE-4066. Use default value when fetching MR_AM_STAGING_DIR
     (xieguiming via harsh)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-3377. Added a unit test to ensure OutputCommitter.checkOutputSpecs 
+    is called prior to copying job.xml. (Jane Chen via acmurthy) 
+
 Release 0.23.2 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/TestMROutputFormat.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/TestMROutputFormat.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6a693e9fa9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/TestMROutputFormat.java
@@ -0,0 +1,206 @@
+/**
+ * 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.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce;
+
+import java.io.DataInput;
+import java.io.DataOutput;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configurable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.IntWritable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.Writable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.JobConf;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+
+public class TestConfInCheckSpec {
+
+  @Test
+  public void testJobSubmission() throws Exception {
+    JobConf conf = new JobConf();
+    Job job = new Job(conf);
+    job.setInputFormatClass(TestInputFormat.class);
+    job.setMapperClass(TestMapper.class);
+    job.setOutputFormatClass(TestOutputFormat.class);
+    job.setOutputKeyClass(IntWritable.class);
+    job.setOutputValueClass(IntWritable.class);
+    job.waitForCompletion(true);
+    assertTrue(job.isSuccessful());
+  }
+  
+  public static class TestMapper
+  extends Mapper<IntWritable, IntWritable, IntWritable, IntWritable> {
+    public void map(IntWritable key, IntWritable value, Context context) 
+    throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+      context.write(key, value);
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+class TestInputFormat extends InputFormat<IntWritable, IntWritable> {
+
+  @Override
+  public RecordReader<IntWritable, IntWritable> createRecordReader(
+      InputSplit split, TaskAttemptContext context) throws IOException,
+      InterruptedException {
+    return new RecordReader<IntWritable, IntWritable>() {
+
+      private boolean done = false;
+      
+      @Override
+      public void close() throws IOException {
+      }
+
+      @Override
+      public IntWritable getCurrentKey() throws IOException,
+          InterruptedException {
+	return new IntWritable(0);
+      }
+
+      @Override
+      public IntWritable getCurrentValue() throws IOException,
+          InterruptedException {
+	return new IntWritable(0);
+      }
+
+      @Override
+      public float getProgress() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+	return done ? 0 : 1;
+      }
+
+      @Override
+      public void initialize(InputSplit split, TaskAttemptContext context)
+          throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+      }
+
+      @Override
+      public boolean nextKeyValue() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+	if (!done) {
+	  done = true;
+	  return true;
+	}
+	return false;
+      }
+    };
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public List<InputSplit> getSplits(JobContext context) throws IOException,
+      InterruptedException {    
+    List<InputSplit> list = new ArrayList<InputSplit>();
+    list.add(new TestInputSplit());
+    return list;
+  }
+}
+
+class TestInputSplit extends InputSplit implements Writable {
+  
+  @Override
+  public long getLength() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+	return 1;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public String[] getLocations() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+	String[] hosts = {"localhost"};
+	return hosts;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void readFields(DataInput in) throws IOException {
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void write(DataOutput out) throws IOException {
+  }	
+}
+
+class TestOutputFormat extends OutputFormat<IntWritable, IntWritable> 
+implements Configurable {
+
+  public static final String TEST_CONFIG_NAME = "mapred.test.jobsubmission";
+  private Configuration conf;
+  
+  @Override
+  public void checkOutputSpecs(JobContext context) throws IOException,
+      InterruptedException {
+    conf.setBoolean(TEST_CONFIG_NAME, true);
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public OutputCommitter getOutputCommitter(TaskAttemptContext context)
+      throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+    return new OutputCommitter() {
+
+      @Override
+      public void abortTask(TaskAttemptContext taskContext) throws IOException {
+      }
+
+      @Override
+      public void commitTask(TaskAttemptContext taskContext) throws IOException {
+      }
+
+      @Override
+      public boolean needsTaskCommit(TaskAttemptContext taskContext)
+          throws IOException {
+	return false;
+      }
+
+      @Override
+      public void setupJob(JobContext jobContext) throws IOException {
+      }
+
+      @Override
+      public void setupTask(TaskAttemptContext taskContext) throws IOException {
+      }
+    };
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public RecordWriter<IntWritable, IntWritable> getRecordWriter(
+      TaskAttemptContext context) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+    assertTrue(context.getConfiguration().getBoolean(TEST_CONFIG_NAME, false));
+    return new RecordWriter<IntWritable, IntWritable>() {
+
+      @Override
+      public void close(TaskAttemptContext context) throws IOException,
+          InterruptedException {	
+      }
+
+      @Override
+      public void write(IntWritable key, IntWritable value) throws IOException,
+          InterruptedException {	
+      }
+    }; 
+  }
+  
+  @Override
+  public Configuration getConf() {
+      return conf;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void setConf(Configuration conf) {
+      this.conf = conf;        
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file