diff --git a/builtin/rev-list.c b/builtin/rev-list.c
index 95d84d5cda..53a746dd89 100644
--- a/builtin/rev-list.c
+++ b/builtin/rev-list.c
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 #include "graph.h"
 #include "bisect.h"
 #include "progress.h"
+#include "reflog-walk.h"
 
 static const char rev_list_usage[] =
 "git rev-list [OPTION] <commit-id>... [ -- paths... ]\n"
@@ -348,7 +349,7 @@ int cmd_rev_list(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		/* Only --header was specified */
 		revs.commit_format = CMIT_FMT_RAW;
 
-	if ((!revs.commits &&
+	if ((!revs.commits && reflog_walk_empty(revs.reflog_info) &&
 	     (!(revs.tag_objects || revs.tree_objects || revs.blob_objects) &&
 	      !revs.pending.nr)) ||
 	    revs.diff)
diff --git a/reflog-walk.c b/reflog-walk.c
index 081f89b70d..98c2f42de9 100644
--- a/reflog-walk.c
+++ b/reflog-walk.c
@@ -365,3 +365,8 @@ void show_reflog_message(struct reflog_walk_info *reflog_info, int oneline,
 		strbuf_release(&selector);
 	}
 }
+
+int reflog_walk_empty(struct reflog_walk_info *info)
+{
+	return !info || !info->reflogs.nr;
+}
diff --git a/reflog-walk.h b/reflog-walk.h
index 27886f793e..af32361072 100644
--- a/reflog-walk.h
+++ b/reflog-walk.h
@@ -20,4 +20,6 @@ extern void get_reflog_selector(struct strbuf *sb,
 		const struct date_mode *dmode, int force_date,
 		int shorten);
 
+extern int reflog_walk_empty(struct reflog_walk_info *walk);
+
 #endif
diff --git a/t/t1414-reflog-walk.sh b/t/t1414-reflog-walk.sh
index 945aa089ec..8bda862ca7 100755
--- a/t/t1414-reflog-walk.sh
+++ b/t/t1414-reflog-walk.sh
@@ -102,4 +102,8 @@ test_expect_failure 'walk prefers reflog to ref tip' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'rev-list -g complains when there are no reflogs' '
+	test_must_fail git rev-list -g
+'
+
 test_done