diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_rewrite.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_rewrite.go
index fc6284ce8..abab5dfcd 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_rewrite.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_rewrite.go
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ func rewriteSnapshot(ctx context.Context, repo *repository.Repository, sn *resti
 }
 
 func runRewrite(ctx context.Context, opts RewriteOptions, gopts GlobalOptions, args []string) error {
-	if len(opts.ExcludeFiles) == 0 && len(opts.Excludes) == 0 && len(opts.InsensitiveExcludes) == 0 {
+	if opts.excludePatternOptions.Empty() {
 		return errors.Fatal("Nothing to do: no excludes provided")
 	}
 
diff --git a/cmd/restic/exclude.go b/cmd/restic/exclude.go
index 86f85f133..4a1954b88 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/exclude.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/exclude.go
@@ -475,6 +475,10 @@ func initExcludePatternOptions(f *pflag.FlagSet, opts *excludePatternOptions) {
 	f.StringArrayVar(&opts.InsensitiveExcludeFiles, "iexclude-file", nil, "same as --exclude-file but ignores casing of `file`names in patterns")
 }
 
+func (opts *excludePatternOptions) Empty() bool {
+	return len(opts.Excludes) == 0 && len(opts.InsensitiveExcludes) == 0 && len(opts.ExcludeFiles) == 0 && len(opts.InsensitiveExcludeFiles) == 0
+}
+
 func collectExcludePatterns(opts excludePatternOptions) ([]RejectByNameFunc, error) {
 	var fs []RejectByNameFunc
 	// add patterns from file