Mutt 2.4.2 has been released, addressing a Linux kernel timing issue that caused false attachment change alerts during email composition. The maintainer, Kevin J. McCarthy, implemented a fix that aligns the comparison of timestamps by reading directly from the filesystem clock, resolving the sporadic popup warnings that were particularly problematic on modern kernel systems. This update also includes improvements such as cleaning up orphaned files after a compose operation abort, stabilizing GPGME key selection, and fixing build issues for OpenBSD and Arch. Mutt 2.4.2 reflects an active development phase, following a series of updates aimed at enhancing stability and compatibility with modern systems
Mutt 2.4.2 Released, Fixes Linux Kernel Clock Mismatch Causing False Attachment Alerts
Mutt 2.4.2 shipped this morning, marking the third patch update in the 2.4.x stable line under two months. The headline change resolves a Linux kernel timing quirk where coarse time() calls and fine-grained filesystem clocks drifted apart, triggering false "attachment changed" prompts during composition. Maintainer Kevin J. McCarthy reworked the stamping function to read stat st_mtime directly, aligning both sides of the comparison while preserving a time(NULL) + 1 fallback for edge cases. The release also cleans up orphaned files on compose abort, stabilizes GPGME key selection, and includes OpenBSD and Arch build fixes, following a diagnosis that originated in Debian's bug tracker.
