diff --git a/bisect.c b/bisect.c
index 6dc27ee7a6..b556b11610 100644
--- a/bisect.c
+++ b/bisect.c
@@ -986,6 +986,12 @@ int bisect_next_all(const char *prefix)
 		exit(1);
 	}
 
+	if (!all) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "No testable commit found.\n"
+			"Maybe you started with bad path parameters?\n");
+		exit(4);
+	}
+
 	bisect_rev = revs.commits->item->object.sha1;
 	memcpy(bisect_rev_hex, sha1_to_hex(bisect_rev), 41);
 
diff --git a/t/t6030-bisect-porcelain.sh b/t/t6030-bisect-porcelain.sh
index c51865fdbc..3b042aacd6 100755
--- a/t/t6030-bisect-porcelain.sh
+++ b/t/t6030-bisect-porcelain.sh
@@ -567,6 +567,11 @@ test_expect_success 'skipping away from skipped commit' '
 	test "$para3" = "$PARA_HASH3"
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'erroring out when using bad path parameters' '
+	test_must_fail git bisect start $PARA_HASH7 $HASH1 -- foobar 2> error.txt &&
+	grep "bad path parameters" error.txt
+'
+
 #
 #
 test_done