diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index eef0c5d..e86a4af 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 popularity-contest (1.9) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
 
-  * 
+  * Petter Reinholdtsen
+    - Report error in popcon-largest-unused if
+      /var/log/popularity-contest is missing.
 
  -- Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>  Thu, 22 Jan 2004 22:18:38 +0100
 
diff --git a/popcon-largest-unused b/popcon-largest-unused
index c0fa4b4..a8a01c5 100755
--- a/popcon-largest-unused
+++ b/popcon-largest-unused
@@ -3,8 +3,15 @@
 # Author: Yann Dirson <dirson@debian.org>
 # License: GPL
 
-grep '<OLD>' /var/log/popularity-contest |
-  cut -d' ' -f3 |
+datafile=/var/log/popularity-contest
+
+if [ ! -e $datafile ] ; then
+    echo "warning: Missing required file $datafile."
+    echo "info:    Run 'popularity-contest > $datafile' to generate it."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+grep '<OLD>' $datafile | cut -d' ' -f3 |
   xargs apt-cache -o 'APT::Cache::AllVersions=0' show |
   grep -E '^(Package|Installed-Size): ' |
   perl -ne 'if (/^Package: (.*)/) { $p = $1 };  if (/^Installed-Size: (.*)/) { print "$1 $p\n"; $p = 'BUG' }' |