diff -r f4bf4f146b1f src/cmd/godoc/main.go
--- a/src/cmd/godoc/main.go	Mon Feb 14 11:47:19 2011 -0800
+++ b/src/cmd/godoc/main.go	Mon Feb 14 14:56:22 2011 -0700
@@ -336,17 +336,22 @@
 	//            if there are multiple packages in a directory.
 	info := pkgHandler.getPageInfo(abspath, relpath, "", mode)
 
-	if info.Err != nil || info.PAst == nil && info.PDoc == nil && info.Dirs == nil {
-		// try again, this time assume it's a command
-		if !pathutil.IsAbs(path) {
-			abspath = absolutePath(path, cmdHandler.fsRoot)
+	if info.Err != nil {
+		if info.PAst == nil && info.PDoc == nil && info.Dirs == nil {
+			// try again, this time assume it's a command
+			if !pathutil.IsAbs(path) {
+				abspath = absolutePath(path, cmdHandler.fsRoot)
+			}
+			ninfo := cmdHandler.getPageInfo(abspath, relpath, "", mode)
+			if ninfo.Err != nil {
+				log.Fatalf("unable to locate package or command: %v; %v", info.Err, ninfo.Err)
+			}
+			info = ninfo
+			goto Found
 		}
-		info = cmdHandler.getPageInfo(abspath, relpath, "", mode)
-	}
-	if info.Err != nil {
 		log.Fatalf("%v", info.Err)
 	}
-
+Found:
 	// If we have more than one argument, use the remaining arguments for filtering
 	if flag.NArg() > 1 {
 		args := flag.Args()[1:]