diff --git a/mercurial/revset.py b/mercurial/revset.py
--- a/mercurial/revset.py
+++ b/mercurial/revset.py
@@ -2108,7 +2108,8 @@ def _rev(repo, subset, x):
     except (TypeError, ValueError):
         # i18n: "rev" is a keyword
         raise error.ParseError(_(b"rev expects a number"))
-    repo.changelog.node(l)  # check that the rev exists
+    if l not in _virtualrevs:
+        repo.changelog.node(l)  # check that the rev exists
     return subset & baseset([l])
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test-template-functions.t b/tests/test-template-functions.t
--- a/tests/test-template-functions.t
+++ b/tests/test-template-functions.t
@@ -1263,6 +1263,13 @@ default. join() should agree with the de
   5:13207e5a10d9fd28ec424934298e176197f2c67f,
   4:bbe44766e73d5f11ed2177f1838de10c53ef3e74
 
+%d parameter handling:
+
+  $ hg log -T '{revset("%d", rev)}\n' -r'wdir()'
+  2147483647
+  $ hg log -T '{revset("%d", rev)}\n' -r'null'
+  -1
+
 Invalid arguments passed to revset()
 
   $ hg log -T '{revset("%whatever", 0)}\n'