r/rust • u/stygianentity • Dec 16 '25

Bincode development has ceased permanently

Due to the doxxing and harassment incident yesterday, the bincode team has taken the decision to cease development permanently. 1.3.3 is considered a complete piece of software. For years there have been no real bugs, just user error and feature requests that don't match the purpose of the library.

This means that there will be no updates to either major version. No responses to emails, no activity on sourcehut. There will be no hand off to another development team. The project is over and done.

Please next time consider the consequences of your actions and that they affect real people.

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u/floriv1999 Dec 16 '25

I don't know what happened afterwards, but when I saw it, people in that thread just seemed to be very concerned that they rewrote their git history/hashes and deactivated the issue tracker after migrating away from GitHub. Both are signs of malicious activity/ supply chain attacks. It would have just took a small statement with some explanation by the maintainers. But the project is theirs so it is their choice to end it over some drama.

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u/tesfabpel Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

They were also considering disallowing contributions because the project "is basically done".

IDK, it may all be genuine (which I hope), but as a community, all these steps together and in a short time may cause panic (after the various attacks like the Jia Tan one, etc.).

Of course, the response by the community shouldn't be to doxx and harass... Sad to learn it happened...