"Illegal model configuration" message when input file missing

[m.hadfield]

When ROMS (the Nonlinear model) cannot find an input file, it exits, but before it does, CHECKDEFS reports an "Illegal model configuration", eg:

 READ_PHYPAR - could not find input file:  stations.in

 Elapsed CPU time (seconds):

 Thread #  0 CPU:       0.063
 Total:                 0.063

 Nonlinear model elapsed time profile:

                                              Total:         0.000    0.0000

 All percentages are with respect to total time =            0.063

 ROMS/TOMS - Output NetCDF summary for Grid 01:

 ROMS/TOMS - Configuration error ..... exit_flag:   5


 ERROR: CHECKDEFS - Illegal model configuration.

When the missing file is supplied, it runs normally.

The "Illegal model configuration" message seems a bit misleading, and I think this behaviour is new. Is it intentional?