phacility/phabricator · error · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Specified maximum date must come after specified minimum dat

Error message

Specified maximum date must come after specified minimum date.

What it means

Thrown by the audit delete workflow (bin/audit delete) when both --min-commit-date and --max-commit-date are supplied and the minimum is strictly greater than the maximum. Dates are compared as loaded values (loadDate), so an inverted range is rejected before any query runs — protecting you from selecting the wrong set of audit data to delete.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/audit/management/PhabricatorAuditManagementDeleteWorkflow.php:74

            'param' => 'ids',
            'help' => pht('Select only audits with the given IDs.'),
          ),
        ));
  }

  public function execute(PhutilArgumentParser $args) {
    $viewer = $this->getViewer();
    $users = $this->loadUsers($args->getArg('users'));
    $repos = $this->loadRepos($args->getArg('repositories'));
    $commits = $this->loadCommits($args->getArg('commits'));
    $ids = $this->parseList($args->getArg('ids'));

    $status = $args->getArg('status');

    $min_date = $this->loadDate($args->getArg('min-commit-date'));
    $max_date = $this->loadDate($args->getArg('max-commit-date'));
    if ($min_date && $max_date && ($min_date > $max_date)) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht('Specified maximum date must come after specified minimum date.'));
    }

    $is_dry_run = $args->getArg('dry-run');

    $query = id(new DiffusionCommitQuery())
      ->setViewer($this->getViewer())
      ->needAuditRequests(true);

    if ($status) {
      $query->withStatuses(array($status));
    }

    $id_map = array();
    if ($ids) {
      $id_map = array_fuse($ids);
      $query->withAuditIDs($ids);
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

Swap the two flags so the earlier date is --min-commit-date and the later is --max-commit-date
Re-run with --dry-run first to see what would be deleted before doing it for real
Use unambiguous absolute dates (YYYY-MM-DD) to avoid parse surprises

Example fix

# before
$ bin/audit delete --min-commit-date 2024-12-01 --max-commit-date 2024-01-01
# after
$ bin/audit delete --min-commit-date 2024-01-01 --max-commit-date 2024-12-01 --dry-run

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

$min = strtotime($args->getArg('min-commit-date'));
$max = strtotime($args->getArg('max-commit-date'));
if ($min !== false && $max !== false && $min > $max) {
  throw new InvalidArgumentException('min-commit-date must be <= max-commit-date');
}

Prevention

Always run destructive audit commands with --dry-run first
Use absolute YYYY-MM-DD dates in scripts to avoid timezone/parsing drift

When it happens

Trigger: Passing --min-commit-date 2024-12-01 --max-commit-date 2024-01-01 (arguments swapped), or mixing formats so the parsed min lands after max.

Common situations: Copy-pasting a command template and swapping the flags; timezone confusion when using relative or local-time formats around midnight/year boundaries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d4f9bbb92ddc4016. Report an issue: GitHub.