FileStatus fStatus = fs.getFileStatus(metaSplitFile);
    if (maxMetaInfoSize > 0 && fStatus.getLen() > maxMetaInfoSize) {
      throw new IOException("Split metadata size exceeded " +
          maxMetaInfoSize +". Aborting job " + jobId);
    }
    FSDataInputStream in = fs.open(metaSplitFile);
    byte[] header = new byte[JobSplit.META_SPLIT_FILE_HEADER.length];
    in.readFully(header);
    if (!Arrays.equals(JobSplit.META_SPLIT_FILE_HEADER, header)) {
      throw new IOException("Invalid header on split file");
    }
    int vers = WritableUtils.readVInt(in);
    if (vers != JobSplit.META_SPLIT_VERSION) {
      in.close();
      throw new IOException("Unsupported split version " + vers);
    }
    int numSplits = WritableUtils.readVInt(in); //TODO: check for insane values
    JobSplit.TaskSplitMetaInfo[] allSplitMetaInfo = 
      new JobSplit.TaskSplitMetaInfo[numSplits];
    for (int i = 0; i < numSplits; i++) {
      JobSplit.SplitMetaInfo splitMetaInfo = new JobSplit.SplitMetaInfo();
      splitMetaInfo.readFields(in);
      JobSplit.TaskSplitIndex splitIndex = new JobSplit.TaskSplitIndex(
          JobSubmissionFiles.getJobSplitFile(jobSubmitDir).toString(), 
          splitMetaInfo.getStartOffset());
      allSplitMetaInfo[i] = new JobSplit.TaskSplitMetaInfo(splitIndex, 
          splitMetaInfo.getLocations(), 
          splitMetaInfo.getInputDataLength());
    }
    in.close();
    return allSplitMetaInfo;
  }