diff --git a/mercurial/archival.py b/mercurial/archival.py
--- a/mercurial/archival.py
+++ b/mercurial/archival.py
@@ -208,6 +208,8 @@ def archive(repo, dest, node, kind, deco
         archiver.addfile(name, mode, islink, data)
 
     ctx = repo.changectx(node)
+    if kind not in archivers:
+        raise util.Abort(_("unknown archive type '%s'" % kind))
     archiver = archivers[kind](dest, prefix, mtime or ctx.date()[0])
     m = ctx.manifest()
     items = m.items()
diff --git a/tests/test-archive b/tests/test-archive
--- a/tests/test-archive
+++ b/tests/test-archive
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@ if [ -f rev-0.tar ]; then
     echo 'rev-0.tar created'
 fi
 
+hg archive -t bogus test.bogus
+
 echo '% empty repo'
 hg init ../empty
 cd ../empty
diff --git a/tests/test-archive.out b/tests/test-archive.out
--- a/tests/test-archive.out
+++ b/tests/test-archive.out
@@ -39,5 +39,6 @@ test-TIP/bar
 test-TIP/baz/bletch
 test-TIP/foo
 rev-0.tar created
+abort: unknown archive type 'bogus'
 % empty repo
 abort: repository has no revisions