diff --git a/src/librustdoc/passes/collect_intra_doc_links.rs b/src/librustdoc/passes/collect_intra_doc_links.rs
index 3beda708bf2..3513c13d522 100644
--- a/src/librustdoc/passes/collect_intra_doc_links.rs
+++ b/src/librustdoc/passes/collect_intra_doc_links.rs
@@ -80,10 +80,10 @@ impl Res {
         }
     }
 
-    fn def_id(self, tcx: TyCtxt<'_>) -> DefId {
+    fn def_id(self, tcx: TyCtxt<'_>) -> Option<DefId> {
         match self {
-            Res::Def(_, id) => id,
-            Res::Primitive(prim) => *PrimitiveType::primitive_locations(tcx).get(&prim).unwrap(),
+            Res::Def(_, id) => Some(id),
+            Res::Primitive(prim) => PrimitiveType::primitive_locations(tcx).get(&prim).copied(),
         }
     }
 
@@ -1127,10 +1127,10 @@ impl LinkCollector<'_, '_> {
                     }
                 }
 
-                Some(ItemLink {
+                res.def_id(self.cx.tcx).map(|page_id| ItemLink {
                     link: ori_link.link.clone(),
                     link_text: link_text.clone(),
-                    page_id: res.def_id(self.cx.tcx),
+                    page_id,
                     fragment,
                 })
             }
diff --git a/src/test/rustdoc/intra-doc/no-doc-primitive.rs b/src/test/rustdoc/intra-doc/no-doc-primitive.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e5eba1d8d48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/rustdoc/intra-doc/no-doc-primitive.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+// Crate tree without a `doc(primitive)` module for primitive type linked to by a doc link.
+
+#![deny(rustdoc::broken_intra_doc_links)]
+#![feature(no_core, lang_items, rustc_attrs)]
+#![no_core]
+#![rustc_coherence_is_core]
+#![crate_type = "rlib"]
+
+// @has no_doc_primitive/index.html
+//! A [`char`] and its [`char::len_utf8`].
+impl char {
+    pub fn len_utf8(self) -> usize {
+        42
+    }
+}