From 8b567a9270b97b854c75955f3f2332408da4ddcb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Winfried Plappert <18740761+wplapper@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:14:35 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Bugfix `restic find`: missing check for mtime
 --oldest/--newest (#5310)

---
 changelog/unreleased/issue-5280         | 7 +++++++
 cmd/restic/cmd_find.go                  | 4 ++++
 cmd/restic/cmd_find_integration_test.go | 9 +++++++++
 3 files changed, 20 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 changelog/unreleased/issue-5280

diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/issue-5280 b/changelog/unreleased/issue-5280
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9714e3c43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/issue-5280
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+Bugfix: `restic find` now checks for correct ordering of time related options
+
+`restic find` now immediately fails with an error if both `--oldest` and `--newest` are specified
+and `--oldest` is a timestamp after `--newest`.
+
+https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/5280
+https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/5310
diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_find.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_find.go
index 0ae7e315d..c4107222d 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_find.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_find.go
@@ -608,6 +608,10 @@ func runFind(ctx context.Context, opts FindOptions, gopts global.Options, args [
 		}
 	}
 
+	if !pat.newest.IsZero() && !pat.oldest.IsZero() && pat.oldest.After(pat.newest) {
+		return errors.Fatal("--oldest must specify a time before --newest")
+	}
+
 	// Check at most only one kind of IDs is provided: currently we
 	// can't mix types
 	if (opts.BlobID && opts.TreeID) ||
diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_find_integration_test.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_find_integration_test.go
index 360620952..c7479a4f8 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_find_integration_test.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_find_integration_test.go
@@ -132,3 +132,12 @@ func TestFindSorting(t *testing.T) {
 	rtest.Assert(t, matches[0].SnapshotID == matchesReverse[1].SnapshotID, "matches should be sorted 1")
 	rtest.Assert(t, matches[1].SnapshotID == matchesReverse[0].SnapshotID, "matches should be sorted 2")
 }
+
+func TestFindInvalidTimeRange(t *testing.T) {
+	env, cleanup := withTestEnvironment(t)
+	defer cleanup()
+
+	err := runFind(context.TODO(), FindOptions{Oldest: "2026-01-01", Newest: "2020-01-01"}, env.gopts, []string{"quack"}, env.gopts.Term)
+	rtest.Assert(t, err != nil && err.Error() == "Fatal: --oldest must specify a time before --newest",
+		"unexpected error message: %v", err)
+}