diff -r 1ef89df2c248 -r 9e39a717a23e mercurial/revset.py
--- a/mercurial/revset.py	Fri Mar 15 11:23:29 2013 -0700
+++ b/mercurial/revset.py	Mon Mar 18 16:04:10 2013 -0500
@@ -1496,8 +1496,6 @@
             s = set([repo[tn].rev()])
         else:
             s = set([cl.rev(n) for t, n in repo.tagslist() if matcher(t)])
-            if not s:
-                raise util.Abort(_("no tags exist that match '%s'") % pattern)
     else:
         s = set([cl.rev(n) for t, n in repo.tagslist() if t != 'tip'])
     return [r for r in subset if r in s]