diff --git a/flang/lib/Frontend/CompilerInvocation.cpp b/flang/lib/Frontend/CompilerInvocation.cpp
--- a/flang/lib/Frontend/CompilerInvocation.cpp
+++ b/flang/lib/Frontend/CompilerInvocation.cpp
@@ -84,6 +84,10 @@
 
 static InputKind ParseFrontendArgs(FrontendOptions &opts,
     llvm::opt::ArgList &args, clang::DiagnosticsEngine &diags) {
+
+  // By default the frontend driver creates a ParseSyntaxOnly action.
+  opts.programAction_ = ParseSyntaxOnly;
+
   // Identify the action (i.e. opts.ProgramAction)
   if (const llvm::opt::Arg *a =
           args.getLastArg(clang::driver::options::OPT_Action_Group)) {
diff --git a/flang/lib/Frontend/FrontendAction.cpp b/flang/lib/Frontend/FrontendAction.cpp
--- a/flang/lib/Frontend/FrontendAction.cpp
+++ b/flang/lib/Frontend/FrontendAction.cpp
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@
 #include "flang/Frontend/FrontendActions.h"
 #include "flang/Frontend/FrontendOptions.h"
 #include "flang/FrontendTool/Utils.h"
+#include "clang/Basic/DiagnosticFrontend.h"
 #include "llvm/Support/Errc.h"
+#include "llvm/Support/VirtualFileSystem.h"
 
 using namespace Fortran::frontend;
 
@@ -31,6 +33,18 @@
     CompilerInstance &ci, const FrontendInputFile &realInput) {
 
   FrontendInputFile input(realInput);
+
+  // Return immediately if the input file does not exist. Note that we cannot
+  // check this for input from stdin.
+  if (input.file() != "-") {
+    if (!llvm::vfs::getRealFileSystem()->exists(input.file())) {
+      ci.diagnostics().Report(clang::diag::err_fe_error_reading)
+          << input.file();
+      BeginSourceFileCleanUp(*this, ci);
+      return false;
+    }
+  }
+
   assert(!instance_ && "Already processing a source file!");
   assert(!realInput.IsEmpty() && "Unexpected empty filename!");
   set_currentInput(realInput);
diff --git a/flang/test/Flang-Driver/missing-input.f90 b/flang/test/Flang-Driver/missing-input.f90
--- a/flang/test/Flang-Driver/missing-input.f90
+++ b/flang/test/Flang-Driver/missing-input.f90
@@ -1,5 +1,28 @@
-! RUN: not %flang-new  2>&1 | FileCheck %s
-
 ! REQUIRES: new-flang-driver
 
-! CHECK: flang-new: error: no input files
+! Test the behaviour when input is missing. Note that with the compiler driver,
+! the input _has_ to be specified. Indeed, the driver decides what to do based
+! on the file extension. No input file means that it doesn't know what to do
+! (compile? preprocess? link?). Whereas the frontend driver simply assumes
+! that "no explicit input == read from stdin"
+
+!--------------------------
+! FLANG DRIVER (flang-new)
+!--------------------------
+! RUN: not %flang-new  2>&1 | FileCheck %s --check-prefix=FLANG-NO-FILE
+! RUN: not %flang-new %t 2>&1 | FileCheck %s --check-prefix=FLANG-NOEXISITANT-FILE
+
+!-----------------------------------------
+! FLANG FRONTEND DRIVER (flang-new -fc1)
+!-----------------------------------------
+! RUN: not %flang-new -fc1 %t 2>&1  | FileCheck %s --check-prefix=FLANG-FC1-NOEXISITANT-FILE
+
+!-----------------------
+! EXPECTED OUTPUT
+!-----------------------
+! FLANG-NO-FILE: flang-new: error: no input files
+
+! FLANG-NOEXISITANT-FILE: flang-new: error: no such file or directory: {{.*}}
+! FLANG-NOEXISITANT-FILE: flang-new: error: no input files
+
+! FLANG-FC1-NOEXISITANT-FILE: error: error reading {{.*}}