diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 9e6ca9d0a7..e1e9f24b17 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@ Hadoop Change Log
 
 Trunk (unreleased changes)
 
+  BUG FIXES
+
+    HADOOP-6730. Bug in FileContext#copy and provide base class for FileContext 
+    tests. (Ravi Phulari via jghoman)
+
 Release 0.21.0 - Unreleased
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContext.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContext.java
index 01d401cedc..5526619369 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContext.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContext.java
@@ -2050,8 +2050,8 @@ private void error(final String s, final String pattern, final int pos) {
    */
   private void checkDest(String srcName, Path dst, boolean overwrite)
       throws AccessControlException, IOException {
-    FileStatus dstFs = getFileStatus(dst);
     try {
+      FileStatus dstFs = getFileStatus(dst);
       if (dstFs.isDir()) {
         if (null == srcName) {
           throw new IOException("Target " + dst + " is a directory");
diff --git a/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContextTestHelper.java b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContextTestHelper.java
index ff1bac03c6..b08a328ad7 100644
--- a/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContextTestHelper.java
+++ b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContextTestHelper.java
@@ -17,12 +17,16 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hadoop.fs;
 
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.DataInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.util.EnumSet;
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Options.CreateOpts;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Options.CreateOpts.BlockSize;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.IOUtils;
 
 /**
  * Helper class for unit tests.
@@ -145,4 +149,19 @@ public static boolean isSymlink(FileContext fc, Path p) throws IOException {
       return false;
     }
   }
+  
+  public static void writeFile(FileContext fc, Path path,byte b[]) throws Exception {
+    FSDataOutputStream out = 
+      fc.create(path,EnumSet.of(CreateFlag.CREATE), CreateOpts.createParent());
+    out.write(b);
+    out.close();
+  }
+  
+  public static byte[] readFile(FileContext fc, Path path, int len ) throws Exception {
+    DataInputStream dis = fc.open(path);
+    byte[] buffer = new byte[len];
+    IOUtils.readFully(dis, buffer, 0, len);
+    dis.close();
+    return buffer;
+  }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContextUtilBase.java b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContextUtilBase.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1eac238e04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FileContextUtilBase.java
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+/**
+ * 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.fs;
+
+import java.util.Arrays;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.util.StringUtils;
+import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+import static org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileContextTestHelper.*;
+
+/**
+ * <p>
+ * A collection of Util tests for the {@link FileContext#util()}.
+ * This test should be used for testing an instance of {@link FileContext#util()}
+ *  that has been initialized to a specific default FileSystem such a
+ *  LocalFileSystem, HDFS,S3, etc.
+ * </p>
+ * <p>
+ * To test a given {@link FileSystem} implementation create a subclass of this
+ * test and override {@link #setUp()} to initialize the <code>fc</code> 
+ * {@link FileContext} instance variable.
+ * 
+ * </p>
+ */
+public abstract class FileContextUtilBase {
+  protected FileContext fc;
+  
+  {
+    try {
+      ((org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger)FileSystem.LOG).getLogger()
+      .setLevel(org.apache.log4j.Level.DEBUG);
+    } catch(Exception e) {
+      System.out.println("Cannot change log level\n"
+          + StringUtils.stringifyException(e));
+    }
+  }
+
+  @Before
+  public void setUp() throws Exception {
+    fc.mkdir(getTestRootPath(fc), FileContext.DEFAULT_PERM, true);
+  }
+
+  @After
+  public void tearDown() throws Exception {
+    fc.delete(getTestRootPath(fc), true);
+  }
+  
+  @Test
+  public void testFcCopy() throws Exception{
+    final String ts = "some random text";
+    Path file1 = getTestRootPath(fc, "file1");
+    Path file2 = getTestRootPath(fc, "file2");
+    
+    writeFile(fc, file1, ts.getBytes());
+    assertTrue(fc.util().exists(file1));
+    fc.util().copy(file1, file2);
+
+    // verify that newly copied file2 exists
+    assertTrue("Failed to copy file2  ", fc.util().exists(file2));
+    // verify that file2 contains test string
+    assertTrue("Copied files does not match ",Arrays.equals(ts.getBytes(),
+        readFile(fc,file2,ts.getBytes().length)));
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestFcLocalFsUtil.java b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestFcLocalFsUtil.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bc1126f231
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestFcLocalFsUtil.java
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/**
+ * 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.fs;
+
+import org.junit.Before;
+
+/**
+ * Test Util for localFs using FileContext API.
+ */
+public class TestFcLocalFsUtil extends
+  FileContextUtilBase {
+
+  @Before
+  public void setUp() throws Exception {
+    fc = FileContext.getLocalFSFileContext();
+    super.setUp();
+  }
+}