Hi all, On Sun, Jan 04, 2026 at 09:44:18PM -0800, David Champion wrote: > I've been trying to get back into Mutt. Sometimes I have time, sometimes I > don't — it's hard to make any kind of commitment. If everyone capable of > leading the project is in the same boat, then what Kurt describes is the > only kind of growth solution I can see. > > I admit I haven't been paying close attention for a while, but I haven't > seen many people who are recognized contributors step forward to volunteer > time. I don't know whether that's because nobody can or will, or because > those who can and will don't think it's wanted.
I've been a mutt(1) user before becoming a neomutt(1) user. I would have loved to stay in mutt(1), because I want my mail client to have as few features as possible, but I *needed* to add some more GPG features to it, and neomutt(1) was the only project that accepted new patches. So, currently, I'm using neomutt(1). But the idea of forking mutt(1) or neomutt(1) and removing as many unnecessary features from it as I can, and end up with a very slim mail clent (maybe I could call it m(1)), has crossed my mind a few times already. For a starter, I'd love to remove IMAP support, as that belongs in a separate tool (mbsync(1)). That would have removed most of the bugs I see reported in neomutt(1). A mail client should only talk SMTP, and mbox & maildir, IMHO. > I'm certainly willing to remain to the extent that I have been, but we need > there to be more people. I have code I technically could push, but I'd > rather have review and commentary on it because I know that for all the > hours I've put into it, it's not really enough to have one veteran who's > been semi-retired for 10 years thinking about it alone in a cabin. > > If anyone else qualified in experience (with both C and the project) has > even a modicum of time to make available, let's talk. I can give time reviewing patches, mostly with C expertise, but not so much project expertise. I don't consider myself a mail expert. At the moment, I'm contributing patches to neomutt(1) making the source code more robust, and reviewing those, and patches to the manual pages. > > But we also have to ask and answer: is that what mutt users want? Or is the > community satisfied with maintenance mode and low growth? > > On Sun, Jan 4, 2026 at 6:53 PM Kurt Hackenberg <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Sun, Jan 04, 2026 at 11:59:52AM +0800, Kevin J. McCarthy wrote: > > > > >No, sorry it's highly unlikely. Mutt has been in maintenance mode for > > >the past 4 years. At this point my time is very limited, so I handle > > >security issues or occasionally tiny fixes or improvements. But not > > >large changes like this anymore. > > > > > >You might want to head over to the NeoMutt project and see what they > > think. > > > > If this continues, eventually Mutt will die. That's what happens to > > software when development ends. > > > > I don't want that. Mutt is a programmer's mail reader -- powerful, > > flexible, configurable -- and done at high quality. I'm not satisfied > > with NeoMutt as a successor. Anyway, if Mutt dies, NeoMutt will > > probably die sometime later. To me, it was, but I can't use it as a programmer anymore, because I need to sign my patches, and verify that patches sent to me are signed, and I can only do that with neomutt(1). <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/tree/CONTRIBUTING.d/git#n35> <https://neomutt.org/feature/cli-crypto> And another necessary feature is encrypting patches, and verifying the encryption information. This is useful when discussing embargoed vulnerabilities. <https://neomutt.org/feature/encryption-info> I would love to see mutt(1) do that. Have a lovely day! Alex > > Kevin is trying to step down from being the maintainer. Nobody has > > volunteered to take over his job as it is, understandably. He seems to > > have done it mostly by himself, and that's a lot of work. > > > > I think we need a different organization, one that distributes the > > responsibility and work, and the control of the code, among more > > people. Maybe there could be a team of 5-10 people that takes > > responsibility for Mutt, with contributions from many other people, who > > might join the core team someday. Part of the job would be ongoing > > encouragement and help for contributors. > > > > Ideas? > > -- <https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
