diff --git a/Documentation/glossary-content.txt b/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
index 822ca832640fe0142e364e99468715d45d2e1fc5..fc9320e59ecac99fc4d3f6234c74f89aab4dd45b 100644
--- a/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
+++ b/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
@@ -387,7 +387,9 @@ Glob magic is incompatible with literal magic.
 exclude;;
 	After a path matches any non-exclude pathspec, it will be run
 	through all exclude pathspec (magic signature: `!` or its
-	synonym `^`). If it matches, the path is ignored.
+	synonym `^`). If it matches, the path is ignored.  When there
+	is no non-exclude pathspec, the exclusion is applied to the
+	result set as if invoked without any pathspec.
 --
 
 [[def_parent]]parent::
diff --git a/pathspec.c b/pathspec.c
index ecad03406397338961fa0cb065b7ca18889d86ef..b961f00c8cd0eb68c56b33aa829579e8609edba6 100644
--- a/pathspec.c
+++ b/pathspec.c
@@ -522,7 +522,7 @@ void parse_pathspec(struct pathspec *pathspec,
 	}
 
 	pathspec->nr = n;
-	ALLOC_ARRAY(pathspec->items, n);
+	ALLOC_ARRAY(pathspec->items, n + 1);
 	item = pathspec->items;
 	prefixlen = prefix ? strlen(prefix) : 0;
 
@@ -546,10 +546,15 @@ void parse_pathspec(struct pathspec *pathspec,
 		pathspec->magic |= item[i].magic;
 	}
 
-	if (nr_exclude == n)
-		die(_("There is nothing to exclude from by :(exclude) patterns.\n"
-		      "Perhaps you forgot to add either ':/' or '.' ?"));
-
+	/*
+	 * If everything is an exclude pattern, add one positive pattern
+	 * that matches everyting. We allocated an extra one for this.
+	 */
+	if (nr_exclude == n) {
+		int plen = (!(flags & PATHSPEC_PREFER_CWD)) ? 0 : prefixlen;
+		init_pathspec_item(item + n, 0, prefix, plen, "");
+		pathspec->nr++;
+	}
 
 	if (pathspec->magic & PATHSPEC_MAXDEPTH) {
 		if (flags & PATHSPEC_KEEP_ORDER)
diff --git a/t/t6132-pathspec-exclude.sh b/t/t6132-pathspec-exclude.sh
index d51595cf6b189a59d271dcc69c3f245b72dcb8f6..9dd5cde5fc53deb365234e815d7142de9a975005 100755
--- a/t/t6132-pathspec-exclude.sh
+++ b/t/t6132-pathspec-exclude.sh
@@ -25,8 +25,10 @@ EOF
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
-test_expect_success 'exclude only should error out' '
-	test_must_fail git log --oneline --format=%s -- ":(exclude)sub"
+test_expect_success 'exclude only no longer errors out' '
+	git log --oneline --format=%s -- . ":(exclude)sub" >expect &&
+	git log --oneline --format=%s -- ":(exclude)sub" >actual &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
 test_expect_success 't_e_i() exclude sub' '