diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 3960abe922..08d8d2904c 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HADOOP-7668. Add a NetUtils method that can tell if an InetAddress 
     belongs to local host. (suresh)
 
+    HADOOP-7687 Make getProtocolSignature public  (sanjay)
+
   BUGS
 
     HADOOP-7606. Upgrade Jackson to version 1.7.1 to match the version required
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/ProtocolSignature.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/ProtocolSignature.java
index a055a7fd46..04d08c5142 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/ProtocolSignature.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/ProtocolSignature.java
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ private static ProtocolSigFingerprint getSigFingerprint(
    * @param protocol protocol
    * @return the server's protocol signature
    */
-  static ProtocolSignature getProtocolSignature(
+  public static ProtocolSignature getProtocolSignature(
       int clientMethodsHashCode,
       long serverVersion,
       Class<? extends VersionedProtocol> protocol) {