diff --git a/mercurial/localrepo.py b/mercurial/localrepo.py
--- a/mercurial/localrepo.py
+++ b/mercurial/localrepo.py
@@ -1652,6 +1652,8 @@
         definitions overriding user aliases, set ``localalias`` to
         ``{name: definitionstring}``.
         '''
+        if specs == [b'null']:
+            return revset.baseset([nullrev])
         if user:
             m = revset.matchany(
                 self.ui,
diff --git a/tests/test-repo-filters-tiptoe.t b/tests/test-repo-filters-tiptoe.t
--- a/tests/test-repo-filters-tiptoe.t
+++ b/tests/test-repo-filters-tiptoe.t
@@ -49,5 +49,4 @@
   $ hg init test-repo
   $ cd test-repo
   $ hg log -r null -T "{node}\n"
-  debug.filters: computing revision filter for "visible"
   0000000000000000000000000000000000000000