diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index b4cd953500..7283c0fc39 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1011,6 +1011,9 @@ Release 2.7.0 - UNRELEASED
 
     HDFS-7807. libhdfs htable.c: fix htable resizing, add unit test (cmccabe)
 
+    HDFS-7805. NameNode recovery prompt should be printed on console (Surendra
+    Singh Lilhore via Colin P. McCabe)
+
     BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-7584 SUBTASKS AND RELATED JIRAS
 
       HDFS-7720. Quota by Storage Type API, tools and ClientNameNode
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/MetaRecoveryContext.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/MetaRecoveryContext.java
index 80312b8856..8831b49adb 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/MetaRecoveryContext.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/MetaRecoveryContext.java
@@ -61,9 +61,9 @@ public MetaRecoveryContext(int force) {
   public String ask(String prompt, String firstChoice, String... choices) 
       throws IOException {
     while (true) {
-      LOG.info(prompt);
+      System.err.print(prompt);
       if (force > FORCE_NONE) {
-        LOG.info("automatically choosing " + firstChoice);
+        System.out.println("automatically choosing " + firstChoice);
         return firstChoice;
       }
       StringBuilder responseBuilder = new StringBuilder();
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ public String ask(String prompt, String firstChoice, String... choices)
           return c;
         }
       }
-      LOG.error("I'm sorry, I cannot understand your response.\n");
+      System.err.print("I'm sorry, I cannot understand your response.\n");
     }
   }