diff -r 1b0db28dadf1 -r a3a2382b2e1b mercurial/commands.py
--- a/mercurial/commands.py	Wed Mar 08 16:53:09 2017 -0800
+++ b/mercurial/commands.py	Wed Mar 08 16:53:17 2017 -0800
@@ -1772,7 +1772,7 @@
         if opts.get('local'):
             if not repo:
                 raise error.Abort(_("can't use --local outside a repository"))
-            paths = [repo.join('hgrc')]
+            paths = [repo.vfs.join('hgrc')]
         elif opts.get('global'):
             paths = scmutil.systemrcpath()
         else: