diff -r 9efd596e4393 -r 07cb58b8c843 mercurial/cmdutil.py
--- a/mercurial/cmdutil.py	Tue Nov 25 01:22:43 2008 +0100
+++ b/mercurial/cmdutil.py	Mon Nov 24 17:16:39 2008 -0800
@@ -1033,6 +1033,8 @@
                 if node is None:
                     # A zero count may be a directory or deleted file, so
                     # try to find matching entries on the slow path.
+                    if follow:
+                        raise util.Abort(_('cannot follow nonexistent file: "%s"') % file_)
                     slowpath = True
                     break
                 else: