diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go
index 6da6af333..413dd8862 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go
@@ -427,7 +427,7 @@ func runBackup(opts BackupOptions, gopts GlobalOptions, args []string) error {
 
 	var excludesByFile []RejectFunc
 	for _, spec := range opts.ExcludeIfPresent {
-		f, err := excludeByFile(spec)
+		f, err := rejectIfPresent(spec)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
diff --git a/cmd/restic/exclude.go b/cmd/restic/exclude.go
index e8cb0daed..34d3971f1 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/exclude.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/exclude.go
@@ -17,12 +17,12 @@ import (
 // should be excluded (rejected) from the backup.
 type RejectFunc func(filename string, fi os.FileInfo) bool
 
-// excludeByFile returns a RejectFunc which itself returns whether a path
+// rejectIfPresent returns a RejectFunc which itself returns whether a path
 // should be excluded. The RejectFunc considers a file to be excluded when
 // it resides in a directory with an exclusion file, that is specified by
 // excludeFileSpec in the form "filename[:content]". The returned error is
 // non-nil if the filename component of excludeFileSpec is empty.
-func excludeByFile(excludeFileSpec string) (RejectFunc, error) {
+func rejectIfPresent(excludeFileSpec string) (RejectFunc, error) {
 	if excludeFileSpec == "" {
 		return func(string, os.FileInfo) bool { return false }, nil
 	}