diff --git a/llvm/test/tools/llvm-nm/invalid-input.test b/llvm/test/tools/llvm-nm/invalid-input.test
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..ad9195613d40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/llvm/test/tools/llvm-nm/invalid-input.test
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+RUN: not llvm-nm %s 2>&1 | FileCheck %s -check-prefix=UNKNOWN_FILE_TYPE
+UNKNOWN_FILE_TYPE: {{.*}}invalid-input.test: The file was not recognized as a valid object file
diff --git a/llvm/tools/llvm-nm/llvm-nm.cpp b/llvm/tools/llvm-nm/llvm-nm.cpp
index 26d1e182abcb..00a6cacf78ff 100644
--- a/llvm/tools/llvm-nm/llvm-nm.cpp
+++ b/llvm/tools/llvm-nm/llvm-nm.cpp
@@ -1240,9 +1240,7 @@ static void dumpSymbolNamesFromFile(std::string &Filename) {
     if (!checkMachOAndArchFlags(O, Filename))
       return;
     dumpSymbolNamesFromObject(*O, true);
-    return;
   }
-  error("unrecognizable file type", Filename);
 }
 
 int main(int argc, char **argv) {