diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 39062a81f0..ca2746362b 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -404,6 +404,8 @@ Trunk (Unreleased)
 
     HADOOP-11625. Minor fixes to command manual & SLA doc (aw)
 
+    HADOOP-11637. bash location hard-coded in shell scripts (aw)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-7761. Improve the performance of raw comparisons. (todd)
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-functions.sh b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-functions.sh
index cec6b2cc15..bccbe259d6 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-functions.sh
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-functions.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 # 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.
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/site/markdown/RackAwareness.md b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/site/markdown/RackAwareness.md
index c5ab19ab63..09f5610c2f 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/site/markdown/RackAwareness.md
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/site/markdown/RackAwareness.md
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ bash Example
 ------------
 
 ```bash
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 # Here's a bash example to show just how simple these scripts can be
 # Assuming we have flat network with everything on a single switch, we can fake a rack topology.
 # This could occur in a lab environment where we have limited nodes,like 2-8 physical machines on a unmanaged switch.
@@ -133,4 +133,5 @@ bash Example
 #    fails to split on four dots, it will still print '/rack-' last field value
 
 echo $@ | xargs -n 1 | awk -F '.' '{print "/rack-"$NF}'
-```
\ No newline at end of file
+```
+
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/conf/kms-env.sh b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/conf/kms-env.sh
index de9554f8a8..41449efa2d 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/conf/kms-env.sh
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/conf/kms-env.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/libexec/kms-config.sh b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/libexec/kms-config.sh
index c1aa1364af..df48889087 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/libexec/kms-config.sh
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/libexec/kms-config.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/sbin/kms.sh b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/sbin/kms.sh
index e4d4f93f9d..9228d2d60f 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/sbin/kms.sh
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-kms/src/main/sbin/kms.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/conf/httpfs-env.sh b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/conf/httpfs-env.sh
index 0e8cc40a16..a4edef625f 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/conf/httpfs-env.sh
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/conf/httpfs-env.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/libexec/httpfs-config.sh b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/libexec/httpfs-config.sh
index e520e08320..767bd6e70d 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/libexec/httpfs-config.sh
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/libexec/httpfs-config.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/sbin/httpfs.sh b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/sbin/httpfs.sh
index 72dca938f9..f51a5e6492 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/sbin/httpfs.sh
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/sbin/httpfs.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/bin/rumen2sls.sh b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/bin/rumen2sls.sh
index c8e38ac633..f4fdabde29 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/bin/rumen2sls.sh
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/bin/rumen2sls.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
 #  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 #  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/bin/slsrun.sh b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/bin/slsrun.sh
index 463ae23575..d1409bf2eb 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/bin/slsrun.sh
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/bin/slsrun.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
 #  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 #  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.