When I install some Linux app from, let’s say GitHub, I can feel how long without updates means the project is not maintained.
For example last commit being 5 years ago for GTK app is a long time and this is considered an abandoned repo. For super simple things like cowsay it’s not that simple but still I can feel it.
How is that with crates with Rust? I see a lot of parsers or web libraries that are not updated for a year, two years, three years… How old is too old?
Also, many of them have a version 0.x.x, so can I even consider them stable?
I like to look at Issues and Pull Requests on Github if a crate wasn’t updated for multiple years. If there are already problems like unsoundness, deprecation, or breaking bugs mentioned with no reaction shown by the maintainer, that is a good sign to look elsewhere instead. If everything seems fine and the crate isn’t very complex or security-critical, it is probably not an issue.