Reject a retention duration longer than about 292 years (closes #289)

parseDuration multiplied each number by the length of its unit with no
limit, so from 293y (or 15251w, 3559mo, 106752d, or a sum such as
200y200y) the result wrapped to a negative duration. The purge cutoff
then lay in the future and every snapshot of the name was selected, for
--older-than and --keep-newer-than alike. Each part is now checked
before it is added, and a total past the largest time.Duration is
rejected as an invalid duration, so nothing is deleted. Go units were
already safe: time.ParseDuration rejects an overflow.

With --prune the backup still runs before the duration is read; only
the prune step fails.

Model: opus-5-5

TODO.md

@@ -22,6 +22,16 @@ the tag exists and is exercised; what is left is merging `next` to
 
 # Completed Steps
 
+- 2026-10-12: Rejected a retention duration longer than about 292 years
+  ([issue #289](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/vaultik/issues/289)). The
+  number given to `--older-than` or `--keep-newer-than` was multiplied
+  by the length of its unit with no limit, so from `293y`, `15251w`,
+  `3559mo` or `106752d`, or a sum of parts such as `200y200y`, the
+  result wrapped to a negative duration. The cutoff then lay in the
+  future, every snapshot of the name was deleted, the one just made
+  included, and the command exited 0. Such a duration is now rejected
+  as invalid and nothing is deleted.
+
 - 2026-10-08: Made a backup cancelled under `--skip-errors` stop at once
   ([issue #286](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/vaultik/issues/286)). After
   Ctrl-C or SIGTERM, phase 2 treated the cancellation error from each

internal/vaultik/helpers.go

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package vaultik
 import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
+	"math"
 	"regexp"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
@@ -47,6 +48,10 @@ const (
 	year  = 365 * day
 )
 
+// maxDuration is the largest value a time.Duration can hold, about 292
+// years.
+const maxDuration = time.Duration(math.MaxInt64)
+
 // A snapshot ID split on "_" has at least a hostname and a trailing
 // timestamp.
 const minSnapshotIDParts = 2
@@ -145,10 +150,10 @@ func parseSnapshotName(snapshotID, hostname string) string {
 // parseDuration parses a duration string with support for human-friendly units:
 // d/day/days, w/week/weeks, mo/month/months, y/year/years, plus standard Go
 // duration units. Following Go, m is minutes and mo is months. A bare number,
-// an unknown unit, and a negative value are all rejected. Outside the Go
-// units the input must be whole numbers each followed directly by a unit
-// (2w3d), so 1.0y and 30 days are errors; decimals work only in Go units
-// (1.5h).
+// an unknown unit, a negative value, and a total longer than maxDuration are
+// all rejected. Outside the Go units the input must be whole numbers each
+// followed directly by a unit (2w3d), so 1.0y and 30 days are errors;
+// decimals work only in Go units (1.5h).
 func parseDuration(s string) (time.Duration, error) {
 	if strings.HasPrefix(strings.TrimSpace(s), "-") {
 		return 0, errNegativeDuration
@@ -181,19 +186,30 @@ func parseDuration(s string) (time.Duration, error) {
 			return 0, fmt.Errorf("invalid number %q: %w", match[1], err)
 		}
 
+		var unitLength time.Duration
+
 		unit := strings.ToLower(match[2])
 		switch unit {
 		case "d", "day", "days":
-			total += time.Duration(n) * day
+			unitLength = day
 		case "w", "week", "weeks":
-			total += time.Duration(n) * week
+			unitLength = week
 		case "mo", "month", "months":
-			total += time.Duration(n) * month
+			unitLength = month
 		case "y", "year", "years":
-			total += time.Duration(n) * year
+			unitLength = year
 		default:
 			return 0, fmt.Errorf("%w %q", errUnknownTimeUnit, unit)
 		}
+
+		// Past maxDuration the sum wraps to a negative value, which would
+		// put the purge cutoff in the future.
+		if time.Duration(n) > (maxDuration-total)/unitLength {
+			return 0, fmt.Errorf("%w: %q is longer than about 292 years",
+				errInvalidDuration, s)
+		}
+
+		total += time.Duration(n) * unitLength
 	}
 
 	return total, nil

internal/vaultik/helpers_test.go

@@ -111,6 +111,17 @@ func TestParseDuration(t *testing.T) {
 		{"30 days", 0, true},
 		{"30 days ago", 0, true},
 		{"x7d", 0, true},
+		// The largest time.Duration is about 292 years. A larger value
+		// must be rejected, not wrapped to a negative one, which would
+		// put the cutoff in the future and select every snapshot.
+		{"292y", 292 * 365 * 24 * time.Hour, false},
+		{"293y", 0, true},
+		{"3559mo", 0, true},
+		{"15251w", 0, true},
+		{"106752d", 0, true},
+		{"2562048h", 0, true},
+		{"200y200y", 0, true},
+		{"292y6mo", 0, true},
 	}
 
 	for _, tt := range tests {

internal/vaultik/purge_per_name_test.go

@@ -267,6 +267,29 @@ func TestPurgeOlderThan_WithNameFilter(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Contains(t, remaining, snapHomeT0)
 }
 
+func TestPurgeOlderThan_TooLargeDeletesNothing(t *testing.T) {
+	log.Initialize(log.Config{})
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	snapshotIDs := []string{snapHomeT0, snapHomeT1}
+
+	v := setupPurgeTest(t, snapHostname, snapshotIDs)
+
+	err := v.PurgeSnapshotsWithOptions(&vaultik.SnapshotPurgeOptions{
+		OlderThan: "1000y",
+		Force:     true,
+	})
+	require.Error(t, err)
+
+	err = v.PurgeSnapshotsWithOptions(&vaultik.SnapshotPurgeOptions{
+		OlderThan: "292y",
+		Force:     true,
+	})
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	assert.ElementsMatch(t, snapshotIDs, listRemainingSnapshots(t, v))
+}
+
 func TestPurgeKeepLatest_ThreeNames(t *testing.T) {
 	log.Initialize(log.Config{})
 	t.Parallel()