Git revert certain files

I want to do a revert of a commit, but only for some files. (Not a checkout; a revert. If you are unfamiliar with the difference, keep reading.)

I tried this

git revert --no-commit abcdef123456 -- my/path/to/revert

And I got this error

fatal: ambiguous argument 'my/path/to/revert': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
Use '--' to separate paths from revisions

But that is precisely what I did! (And yes, my/path/to/revert is in my working tree.)

My working theory is that it is not possible to revert only some files, and that the Git error message is misleading.

(Git 1.7.9.5)

This is not a duplicate of Reverting a single file to a previous version in git.

That question (despite the title) pertains to git-checkout. A checkout restores a file to a previous version, removing all commits after that point.
My question pertains to git-revert. A revert undoes changes made in a particular commit, without touching other commits that may have come later. It applies the reverse of (only) that commit.

Solution

A shorter sequence for when you can make a short list of what you want:

git revert that_commit           # do the whole revert
git reset --hard HEAD^           # in what turns out to have been a throwaway commit
git checkout HEAD@{1} -- one/folder   # and just take what you want of the results