diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/issue-4251 b/changelog/unreleased/issue-4251
index 31be52401..5aeb50062 100644
--- a/changelog/unreleased/issue-4251
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/issue-4251
@@ -3,10 +3,11 @@ Enhancement: Support reading backup from a program's standard output
 When reading data from stdin, the `backup` command could not verify whether the
 corresponding command completed successfully.
 
-The `backup` command now supports starting an arbitrary command and sourcing
-the backup content from its standard output. This enables restic to verify that
-the command completes with exit code zero. A non-zero exit code causes the
-backup to fail.
+The `backup` command now supports the `--stdin-from-command` option. When using
+this option, the arguments to `backup` are interpreted as a command. `backup`
+then executes the command and stores its standard output in the backup. This
+enables restic to verify that the command completes with exit code zero. A
+non-zero exit code causes the backup to fail.
 
 Example: `restic backup --stdin-from-command mysqldump [...]`
 
diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go
index a2b81a759..be3de5f8e 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ func init() {
 	f.StringVar(&backupOptions.ExcludeLargerThan, "exclude-larger-than", "", "max `size` of the files to be backed up (allowed suffixes: k/K, m/M, g/G, t/T)")
 	f.BoolVar(&backupOptions.Stdin, "stdin", false, "read backup from stdin")
 	f.StringVar(&backupOptions.StdinFilename, "stdin-filename", "stdin", "`filename` to use when reading from stdin")
-	f.BoolVar(&backupOptions.StdinCommand, "stdin-from-command", false, "execute command and store its stdout")
+	f.BoolVar(&backupOptions.StdinCommand, "stdin-from-command", false, "interpret arguments as command to execute and store its stdout")
 	f.Var(&backupOptions.Tags, "tag", "add `tags` for the new snapshot in the format `tag[,tag,...]` (can be specified multiple times)")
 	f.UintVar(&backupOptions.ReadConcurrency, "read-concurrency", 0, "read `n` files concurrently (default: $RESTIC_READ_CONCURRENCY or 2)")
 	f.StringVarP(&backupOptions.Host, "host", "H", "", "set the `hostname` for the snapshot manually. To prevent an expensive rescan use the \"parent\" flag")