diff --git a/builtin/submodule--helper.c b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
index 8da263f0b0..f0b2c4fe0b 100644
--- a/builtin/submodule--helper.c
+++ b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
@@ -287,10 +287,8 @@ static int module_list(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	argc = parse_options(argc, argv, prefix, module_list_options,
 			     git_submodule_helper_usage, 0);
 
-	if (module_list_compute(argc, argv, prefix, &pathspec, &list) < 0) {
-		printf("#unmatched\n");
+	if (module_list_compute(argc, argv, prefix, &pathspec, &list) < 0)
 		return 1;
-	}
 
 	for (i = 0; i < list.nr; i++) {
 		const struct cache_entry *ce = list.entries[i];
diff --git a/git-submodule.sh b/git-submodule.sh
index 5a4dec050b..fadbe5d3e0 100755
--- a/git-submodule.sh
+++ b/git-submodule.sh
@@ -345,7 +345,10 @@ cmd_foreach()
 	# command in the subshell (and a recursive call to this function)
 	exec 3<&0
 
-	git submodule--helper list --prefix "$wt_prefix"|
+	{
+		git submodule--helper list --prefix "$wt_prefix" ||
+		echo "#unmatched"
+	} |
 	while read mode sha1 stage sm_path
 	do
 		die_if_unmatched "$mode"
@@ -453,7 +456,10 @@ cmd_deinit()
 		die "$(eval_gettext "Use '--all' if you really want to deinitialize all submodules")"
 	fi
 
-	git submodule--helper list --prefix "$wt_prefix" "$@" |
+	{
+		git submodule--helper list --prefix "$wt_prefix" "$@" ||
+		echo "#unmatched"
+	} |
 	while read mode sha1 stage sm_path
 	do
 		die_if_unmatched "$mode"
@@ -1013,7 +1019,10 @@ cmd_status()
 		shift
 	done
 
-	git submodule--helper list --prefix "$wt_prefix" "$@" |
+	{
+		git submodule--helper list --prefix "$wt_prefix" "$@" ||
+		echo "#unmatched"
+	} |
 	while read mode sha1 stage sm_path
 	do
 		die_if_unmatched "$mode"
@@ -1091,7 +1100,10 @@ cmd_sync()
 		esac
 	done
 	cd_to_toplevel
-	git submodule--helper list --prefix "$wt_prefix" "$@" |
+	{
+		git submodule--helper list --prefix "$wt_prefix" "$@" ||
+		echo "#unmatched"
+	} |
 	while read mode sha1 stage sm_path
 	do
 		die_if_unmatched "$mode"