--- misc/fsck.8.in
+++ misc/fsck.8.in
@@ -391,6 +391,15 @@
 .B /etc/fstab
 file.  It is also useful for developers who are testing
 .BR fsck .
+.TP
+.B BLKID_FILE
+This environment variable allows the early boot scripts
+to override the standard location of the 
+.B /etc/blkid.tab
+file.  This file contains a mapping between UUID, LABEL and TYPE
+values to device nodes. The information in the blkid.tab might
+be stale after a reboot if hardware was changed or disks were
+added or removed.
 .SH SEE ALSO
 .BR fstab (5),
 .BR mkfs (8),
--- misc/fsck.c
+++ misc/fsck.c
@@ -1243,7 +1243,7 @@
 	bindtextdomain(NLS_CAT_NAME, LOCALEDIR);
 	textdomain(NLS_CAT_NAME);
 #endif
-	blkid_get_cache(&cache, NULL);
+	blkid_get_cache(&cache, getenv("BLKID_FILE"));
 	PRS(argc, argv);
 
 	if (!notitle)