diff --git a/git-filter-repo b/git-filter-repo
index fa86b5f..fbe9a6f 100755
--- a/git-filter-repo
+++ b/git-filter-repo
@@ -3098,7 +3098,7 @@ class RepoFilter(object):
       print("NOTE: Not running fast-import or cleaning up; --dry-run passed.")
       print("      Requested filtering can be seen {}".format(orig_str))
       print("        " + self._fe_filt)
-      sys.exit(0)
+      return
 
     target_working_dir = self._args.target or '.'
     if self._input: