diff --git a/setup.c b/setup.c
index 2e3248a0c4..78a8041ff0 100644
--- a/setup.c
+++ b/setup.c
@@ -110,9 +110,7 @@ const char *prefix_path(const char *prefix, int len, const char *path)
 		if (strncmp(sanitized, work_tree, len) ||
 		    (sanitized[len] != '\0' && sanitized[len] != '/')) {
 		error_out:
-			error("'%s' is outside repository", orig);
-			free(sanitized);
-			return NULL;
+			die("'%s' is outside repository", orig);
 		}
 		if (sanitized[len] == '/')
 			len++;
@@ -216,10 +214,7 @@ const char **get_pathspec(const char *prefix, const char **pathspec)
 	prefixlen = prefix ? strlen(prefix) : 0;
 	while (*src) {
 		const char *p = prefix_path(prefix, prefixlen, *src);
-		if (p)
-			*(dst++) = p;
-		else
-			exit(128); /* error message already given */
+		*(dst++) = p;
 		src++;
 	}
 	*dst = NULL;