diff --git a/mercurial/cmdutil.py b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
--- a/mercurial/cmdutil.py
+++ b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
@@ -2088,7 +2088,7 @@ def remove(ui, repo, m, prefix, after, f
                     return True
             return False
 
-        if f in repo.dirstate or f in wctx.dirs() or insubrepo():
+        if f in repo.dirstate or f in wctx.dirs() or f == '.' or insubrepo():
             continue
 
         if os.path.exists(m.rel(join(f))):
diff --git a/tests/test-subrepo-deep-nested-change.t b/tests/test-subrepo-deep-nested-change.t
--- a/tests/test-subrepo-deep-nested-change.t
+++ b/tests/test-subrepo-deep-nested-change.t
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ Check that deep archiving works
 
 .. but first take a detour through some deep removal testing
 
-  $ hg remove -S -I 're:.*.txt' sub1
+  $ hg remove -S -I 're:.*.txt' .
   removing sub1/sub2/folder/test.txt (glob)
   removing sub1/sub2/test.txt (glob)
   $ hg status -S