diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/Support/Log.cs b/OpenRA.Game/Support/Log.cs
index 19c62e07eb..b837815a96 100755
--- a/OpenRA.Game/Support/Log.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/Support/Log.cs
@@ -46,6 +46,12 @@ namespace OpenRA
 		{
 			if (Channels.ContainsKey(channelName)) return;
 
+			if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(baseFilename))
+			{
+				Channels.Add(channelName, new ChannelInfo());
+				return;
+			}
+
 			foreach (var filename in FilenamesForChannel(channelName, baseFilename))
 				try
 				{
@@ -70,6 +76,9 @@ namespace OpenRA
 			if (!Channels.TryGetValue(channel, out info))
 				throw new Exception("Tried logging to non-existant channel " + channel);
 
+			if (info.Writer == null)
+				return;
+
 			info.Writer.WriteLine(format, args);
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/OpenRA.Lint/YamlChecker.cs b/OpenRA.Lint/YamlChecker.cs
index 61ded227c4..979c09176e 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Lint/YamlChecker.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Lint/YamlChecker.cs
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@
  * as published by the Free Software Foundation. For more information,
  * see COPYING.
  */
+using System.IO;
+
+
 #endregion
 
 using System;
@@ -41,6 +44,8 @@ namespace OpenRA.Lint
 
 			try
 			{
+				Log.AddChannel("perf", null);
+
 				var options = args.Where(a => a.StartsWith("-"));
 				var mod = args.Where(a => !options.Contains(a)).First();
 				var map = args.Where(a => !options.Contains(a)).Skip(1).FirstOrDefault();