diff --git a/remotefilelog/__init__.py b/remotefilelog/__init__.py
--- a/remotefilelog/__init__.py
+++ b/remotefilelog/__init__.py
@@ -987,7 +987,11 @@
 
     revs = scmutil.revrange(repo, opts.get('rev'))
 
-    repo.prefetch(revs, repack=opts.get('repack'), pats=pats, opts=opts)
+    repo.prefetch(revs, pats=pats, opts=opts)
+
+    # Run repack in background
+    if opts.get('repack'):
+        repackmod.backgroundrepack(repo, incremental=True)
 
 @command('repack', [
      ('', 'background', None, _('run in a background process'), None),
diff --git a/remotefilelog/shallowrepo.py b/remotefilelog/shallowrepo.py
--- a/remotefilelog/shallowrepo.py
+++ b/remotefilelog/shallowrepo.py
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@
 from mercurial.node import hex, nullid, nullrev
 from mercurial import error, localrepo, util, match, scmutil
 from . import remotefilelog, remotefilectx, fileserverclient
-import repack as repackmod
 import constants, shallowutil
 from contentstore import remotefilelogcontentstore, unioncontentstore
 from contentstore import remotecontentstore
@@ -187,20 +186,15 @@
 
             runshellcommand(cmd, os.environ)
 
-        def prefetch(self, revs, base=None, repack=False, pats=None, opts=None):
+        def prefetch(self, revs, base=None, pats=None, opts=None):
             """Prefetches all the necessary file revisions for the given revs
             Optionally runs repack in background
             """
             with repo._lock(repo.svfs, 'prefetchlock', True, None, None,
                             _('prefetching in %s') % repo.origroot):
-                self._prefetch(revs, base, repack, pats, opts)
+                self._prefetch(revs, base, pats, opts)
 
-            # Run repack in background
-            if repack:
-                repackmod.backgroundrepack(repo, incremental=True)
-
-        def _prefetch(self, revs, base=None, repack=False, pats=None,
-                      opts=None):
+        def _prefetch(self, revs, base=None, pats=None, opts=None):
             fallbackpath = self.fallbackpath
             if fallbackpath:
                 # If we know a rev is on the server, we should fetch the server