diff -r b50fee9a2dad -r d54d4de56aa7 mercurial/commands.py
--- a/mercurial/commands.py	Fri Apr 13 22:55:46 2012 -0500
+++ b/mercurial/commands.py	Fri Apr 13 11:01:07 2012 -0700
@@ -972,6 +972,12 @@
     if 'rev' in opts:
         revs = scmutil.revrange(repo, opts['rev'])
 
+    bundletype = opts.get('type', 'bzip2').lower()
+    btypes = {'none': 'HG10UN', 'bzip2': 'HG10BZ', 'gzip': 'HG10GZ'}
+    bundletype = btypes.get(bundletype)
+    if bundletype not in changegroup.bundletypes:
+        raise util.Abort(_('unknown bundle type specified with --type'))
+
     if opts.get('all'):
         base = ['null']
     else:
@@ -998,12 +1004,6 @@
         scmutil.nochangesfound(ui, outgoing and outgoing.excluded)
         return 1
 
-    bundletype = opts.get('type', 'bzip2').lower()
-    btypes = {'none': 'HG10UN', 'bzip2': 'HG10BZ', 'gzip': 'HG10GZ'}
-    bundletype = btypes.get(bundletype)
-    if bundletype not in changegroup.bundletypes:
-        raise util.Abort(_('unknown bundle type specified with --type'))
-
     changegroup.writebundle(cg, fname, bundletype)
 
 @command('cat',