diff --git a/builtin/submodule--helper.c b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
index ed764c9f0e5f76bbf8da7297315a4c29c0636271..5295b727d4609fa33a08c31b2d051ce3f98244fb 100644
--- a/builtin/submodule--helper.c
+++ b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
@@ -37,9 +37,9 @@ static int module_list_compute(int argc, const char **argv,
 	for (i = 0; i < active_nr; i++) {
 		const struct cache_entry *ce = active_cache[i];
 
-		if (!S_ISGITLINK(ce->ce_mode) ||
-		    !match_pathspec(pathspec, ce->name, ce_namelen(ce),
-				    0, ps_matched, 1))
+		if (!match_pathspec(pathspec, ce->name, ce_namelen(ce),
+				    0, ps_matched, 1) ||
+		    !S_ISGITLINK(ce->ce_mode))
 			continue;
 
 		ALLOC_GROW(list->entries, list->nr + 1, list->alloc);
diff --git a/t/t7400-submodule-basic.sh b/t/t7400-submodule-basic.sh
index be82a75e542a7b7d8dab259da4e64dd265019dd1..e1abd1923033617540c915af4372ba42936326d0 100755
--- a/t/t7400-submodule-basic.sh
+++ b/t/t7400-submodule-basic.sh
@@ -849,6 +849,19 @@ test_expect_success 'set up a second submodule' '
 	git commit -m "submodule example2 added"
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'submodule deinit works on repository without submodules' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -rf newdirectory" &&
+	mkdir newdirectory &&
+	(
+		cd newdirectory &&
+		git init &&
+		>file &&
+		git add file &&
+		git commit -m "repo should not be empty"
+		git submodule deinit .
+	)
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'submodule deinit should remove the whole submodule section from .git/config' '
 	git config submodule.example.foo bar &&
 	git config submodule.example2.frotz nitfol &&