diff -r d85b0d81112b -r ac0a87160012 mercurial/localrepo.py
--- a/mercurial/localrepo.py	Mon Aug 06 11:32:16 2018 -0700
+++ b/mercurial/localrepo.py	Sat Aug 04 21:31:46 2018 -0400
@@ -495,6 +495,11 @@
                         ' dummy changelog to prevent using the old repo layout'
                     )
             else:
+                try:
+                    self.vfs.stat()
+                except OSError as inst:
+                    if inst.errno != errno.ENOENT:
+                        raise
                 raise error.RepoError(_("repository %s not found") % path)
         elif create:
             raise error.RepoError(_("repository %s already exists") % path)