diff --git a/mercurial/cmdutil.py b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
--- a/mercurial/cmdutil.py
+++ b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
@@ -260,6 +260,18 @@ debugrevlogopts = [
 _linebelow = b"^HG: ------------------------ >8 ------------------------$"
 
 
+def check_at_most_one_arg(opts, *args):
+    """abort if more than one of the arguments are in opts"""
+    previous = None
+    for x in args:
+        if opts.get(x):
+            if previous:
+                raise error.Abort(
+                    _(b'cannot specify both --%s and --%s') % (previous, x)
+                )
+            previous = x
+
+
 def resolvecommitoptions(ui, opts):
     """modify commit options dict to handle related options
 
diff --git a/mercurial/commands.py b/mercurial/commands.py
--- a/mercurial/commands.py
+++ b/mercurial/commands.py
@@ -1889,8 +1889,7 @@ def clone(ui, source, dest=None, **opts)
     Returns 0 on success.
     """
     opts = pycompat.byteskwargs(opts)
-    if opts.get(b'noupdate') and opts.get(b'updaterev'):
-        raise error.Abort(_(b"cannot specify both --noupdate and --updaterev"))
+    cmdutil.check_at_most_one_arg(opts, b'noupdate', b'updaterev')
 
     # --include/--exclude can come from narrow or sparse.
     includepats, excludepats = None, None