diff --git a/mercurial/cmdutil.py b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
--- a/mercurial/cmdutil.py
+++ b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
@@ -2466,7 +2466,11 @@ def revert(ui, repo, ctx, parents, *pats
             for table, (action, backup) in disptable:
                 if abs not in table:
                     continue
-                if action is not None:
+                if action is None:
+                    if exact:
+                        ui.warn(_('no changes needed to %s\n') % rel)
+
+                else:
                     handle(action, backup)
                 break
             else:
diff --git a/tests/test-revert.t b/tests/test-revert.t
--- a/tests/test-revert.t
+++ b/tests/test-revert.t
@@ -143,9 +143,10 @@ exact match are more silent
   $ hg st d
   R d
 
-should silently keep d removed
+should keep d removed
 
   $ hg revert -r0 d
+  no changes needed to d
   $ hg st d
   R d
 
@@ -1104,14 +1105,9 @@ Misbehavior:
 - fails to report no change to revert for
 |
 | - clean_clean
-| - added_revert
 | - clean_revert
 | - modified_revert
 | - removed_revert
-| - added_removed
-| - added_untracked-clean
-| - added_untracked-revert
-| - added_untracked-wc
 
   $ for file in `python ../gen-revert-cases.py filelist`; do
   >   echo '### revert for:' $file;
@@ -1123,14 +1119,19 @@ Misbehavior:
   ### revert for: added_deleted
   
   ### revert for: added_removed
+  no changes needed to added_removed
   
   ### revert for: added_revert
+  no changes needed to added_revert
   
   ### revert for: added_untracked-clean
+  no changes needed to added_untracked-clean
   
   ### revert for: added_untracked-revert
+  no changes needed to added_untracked-revert
   
   ### revert for: added_untracked-wc
+  no changes needed to added_untracked-wc
   
   ### revert for: added_wc