diff --git a/revision.c b/revision.c
index 6603af9444..08d5806b8a 100644
--- a/revision.c
+++ b/revision.c
@@ -1168,6 +1168,7 @@ static void init_all_refs_cb(struct all_refs_cb *cb, struct rev_info *revs,
 {
 	cb->all_revs = revs;
 	cb->all_flags = flags;
+	revs->rev_input_given = 1;
 }
 
 void clear_ref_exclusion(struct string_list **ref_excludes_p)
diff --git a/revision.h b/revision.h
index f96e7f7f49..bc18487d6f 100644
--- a/revision.h
+++ b/revision.h
@@ -71,6 +71,13 @@ struct rev_info {
 	const char *def;
 	struct pathspec prune_data;
 
+	/*
+	 * Whether the arguments parsed by setup_revisions() included any
+	 * "input" revisions that might still have yielded an empty pending
+	 * list (e.g., patterns like "--all" or "--glob").
+	 */
+	int rev_input_given;
+
 	/* topo-sort */
 	enum rev_sort_order sort_order;