diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/history/HistoryServerArguments.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/history/HistoryServerArguments.scala
index 18265df9fa..d03bab3820 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/history/HistoryServerArguments.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/history/HistoryServerArguments.scala
@@ -30,28 +30,35 @@ private[history] class HistoryServerArguments(conf: SparkConf, args: Array[Strin
   parse(args.toList)
 
   private def parse(args: List[String]): Unit = {
-    args match {
-      case ("--dir" | "-d") :: value :: tail =>
-        logWarning("Setting log directory through the command line is deprecated as of " +
-          "Spark 1.1.0. Please set this through spark.history.fs.logDirectory instead.")
-        conf.set("spark.history.fs.logDirectory", value)
-        System.setProperty("spark.history.fs.logDirectory", value)
-        parse(tail)
+    if (args.length == 1) {
+      setLogDirectory(args.head)
+    } else {
+      args match {
+        case ("--dir" | "-d") :: value :: tail =>
+          setLogDirectory(value)
+          parse(tail)
 
-      case ("--help" | "-h") :: tail =>
-        printUsageAndExit(0)
+        case ("--help" | "-h") :: tail =>
+          printUsageAndExit(0)
 
-      case ("--properties-file") :: value :: tail =>
-        propertiesFile = value
-        parse(tail)
+        case ("--properties-file") :: value :: tail =>
+          propertiesFile = value
+          parse(tail)
 
-      case Nil =>
+        case Nil =>
 
-      case _ =>
-        printUsageAndExit(1)
+        case _ =>
+          printUsageAndExit(1)
+      }
     }
   }
 
+  private def setLogDirectory(value: String): Unit = {
+    logWarning("Setting log directory through the command line is deprecated as of " +
+      "Spark 1.1.0. Please set this through spark.history.fs.logDirectory instead.")
+    conf.set("spark.history.fs.logDirectory", value)
+  }
+
    // This mutates the SparkConf, so all accesses to it must be made after this line
    Utils.loadDefaultSparkProperties(conf, propertiesFile)
 
@@ -62,6 +69,8 @@ private[history] class HistoryServerArguments(conf: SparkConf, args: Array[Strin
       |Usage: HistoryServer [options]
       |
       |Options:
+      |  DIR                         Deprecated; set spark.history.fs.logDirectory directly
+      |  --dir DIR (-d DIR)          Deprecated; set spark.history.fs.logDirectory directly
       |  --properties-file FILE      Path to a custom Spark properties file.
       |                              Default is conf/spark-defaults.conf.
       |
@@ -90,3 +99,4 @@ private[history] class HistoryServerArguments(conf: SparkConf, args: Array[Strin
   }
 
 }
+
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/history/HistoryServerArgumentsSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/history/HistoryServerArgumentsSuite.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..34f27ecaa0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/history/HistoryServerArgumentsSuite.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+/*
+ * 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.spark.deploy.history
+
+import java.io.File
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets._
+
+import com.google.common.io.Files
+
+import org.apache.spark._
+import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
+
+class HistoryServerArgumentsSuite extends SparkFunSuite {
+
+  private val logDir = new File("src/test/resources/spark-events")
+  private val conf = new SparkConf()
+    .set("spark.history.fs.logDirectory", logDir.getAbsolutePath)
+    .set("spark.history.fs.updateInterval", "1")
+    .set("spark.testing", "true")
+
+  test("No Arguments Parsing") {
+    val argStrings = Array[String]()
+    val hsa = new HistoryServerArguments(conf, argStrings)
+    assert(conf.get("spark.history.fs.logDirectory") === logDir.getAbsolutePath)
+    assert(conf.get("spark.history.fs.updateInterval") === "1")
+    assert(conf.get("spark.testing") === "true")
+  }
+
+  test("Directory Arguments Parsing --dir or -d") {
+    val argStrings = Array("--dir", "src/test/resources/spark-events1")
+    val hsa = new HistoryServerArguments(conf, argStrings)
+    assert(conf.get("spark.history.fs.logDirectory") === "src/test/resources/spark-events1")
+  }
+
+  test("Directory Param can also be set directly") {
+    val argStrings = Array("src/test/resources/spark-events2")
+    val hsa = new HistoryServerArguments(conf, argStrings)
+    assert(conf.get("spark.history.fs.logDirectory") === "src/test/resources/spark-events2")
+  }
+
+  test("Properties File Arguments Parsing --properties-file") {
+    val tmpDir = Utils.createTempDir()
+    val outFile = File.createTempFile("test-load-spark-properties", "test", tmpDir)
+    try {
+      Files.write("spark.test.CustomPropertyA blah\n" +
+        "spark.test.CustomPropertyB notblah\n", outFile, UTF_8)
+      val argStrings = Array("--properties-file", outFile.getAbsolutePath)
+      val hsa = new HistoryServerArguments(conf, argStrings)
+      assert(conf.get("spark.test.CustomPropertyA") === "blah")
+      assert(conf.get("spark.test.CustomPropertyB") === "notblah")
+    } finally {
+      Utils.deleteRecursively(tmpDir)
+    }
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/sbin/start-history-server.sh b/sbin/start-history-server.sh
index 7172ad15d8..9034e5715c 100755
--- a/sbin/start-history-server.sh
+++ b/sbin/start-history-server.sh
@@ -30,10 +30,4 @@ sbin="`cd "$sbin"; pwd`"
 . "$sbin/spark-config.sh"
 . "$SPARK_PREFIX/bin/load-spark-env.sh"
 
-if [ $# != 0 ]; then
-  echo "Using command line arguments for setting the log directory is deprecated. Please "
-  echo "set the spark.history.fs.logDirectory configuration option instead."
-  export SPARK_HISTORY_OPTS="$SPARK_HISTORY_OPTS -Dspark.history.fs.logDirectory=$1"
-fi
-
-exec "$sbin"/spark-daemon.sh start org.apache.spark.deploy.history.HistoryServer 1
+exec "$sbin"/spark-daemon.sh start org.apache.spark.deploy.history.HistoryServer 1 $@