#include "revision.h"
 #include "diffcore.h"
 #include "diff.h"
+#include "object-store.h"
 
 #define OPT_QUIET (1 << 0)
 #define OPT_CACHED (1 << 1)
                             displaypath);
        } else if (!(flags & OPT_CACHED)) {
                struct object_id oid;
+               struct ref_store *refs = get_submodule_ref_store(path);
 
-               if (refs_head_ref(get_submodule_ref_store(path),
-                                 handle_submodule_head_ref, &oid))
+               if (!refs) {
+                       print_status(flags, '-', path, ce_oid, displaypath);
+                       goto cleanup;
+               }
+               if (refs_head_ref(refs, handle_submodule_head_ref, &oid))
                        die(_("could not resolve HEAD ref inside the "
                              "submodule '%s'"), path);
 
 
        struct option module_deinit_options[] = {
                OPT__QUIET(&quiet, N_("Suppress submodule status output")),
-               OPT__FORCE(&force, N_("Remove submodule working trees even if they contain local changes")),
+               OPT__FORCE(&force, N_("Remove submodule working trees even if they contain local changes"), 0),
                OPT_BOOL(0, "all", &all, N_("Unregister all submodules")),
                OPT_END()
        };
                die(_("Use '--all' if you really want to deinitialize all submodules"));
 
        if (module_list_compute(argc, argv, prefix, &pathspec, &list) < 0)
-               BUG("module_list_compute should not choke on empty pathspec");
+               return 1;
 
        info.prefix = prefix;
        if (quiet)