No traceback on missing configuration with towncrier check

src/towncrier/_settings/load.py

@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ def load_config_from_options(
         config = load_config_from_file(os.path.dirname(config_path), config_path)
 
     if config is None:
-        raise ConfigError(f"No configuration file found.\nLooked in: {base_directory}")
+        sys.exit(f"No configuration file found.\nLooked in: {base_directory}")
 
     return base_directory, config
 

src/towncrier/newsfragments/501.feature

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Don't raise an exception with ``towncrier check`` on missing configuration.

src/towncrier/test/test_settings.py

@@ -7,9 +7,11 @@
 
 from textwrap import dedent
 
+from click.testing import CliRunner
 from twisted.trial.unittest import TestCase
 
 from .._settings import ConfigError, load_config
+from .._shell import cli
 
 
 class TomlSettingsTests(TestCase):
@@ -153,6 +155,21 @@ def test_towncrier_toml_preferred(self):
         config = load_config(temp)
         self.assertEqual(config.package, "a")
 
+    def test_load_no_config(self):
+        """
+        Check that no exception is raised if no config is found in the base directory.
+        """
+        temp = self.mktemp()
+        os.makedirs(temp)
+
+        runner = CliRunner()
+        result = runner.invoke(cli, ["--dir", temp])
+        self.assertEqual(
+            result.output,
+            f"No configuration file found.\nLooked in: {os.path.abspath(temp)}\n",
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(result.exit_code, 1)
+
     def test_missing_template(self):
         """
         Towncrier will raise an exception saying when it can't find a template.