libexpat now funded by the City of Munich for up to 6 months

For readers new to Expat:

libexpat is a fast streaming XML parser. Alongside libxml2, Expat is one of the most widely used software libre XML parsers written in C, specifically C99. It is cross-platform and licensed under the MIT license.

Starting 2026-08-01, the "security vacation" of the project has ended and(!) I will be be paid to work on maintaining libexpat for up to 6 months thanks to the City of Munich under the umbrella of their Open Source Sabbatical program.

What does that mean?

For much of the past 10 years, working on libexpat has been competing with my regular occupation as a software engineer, chores, social life and re-creation. For the first time, I am now being employed to work on maintaining libexpat as my "regular job" for a limited period of time. My top priorities will be:

Fixing the currently 5 known unfixed vulnerabilities

Adding support for XML 1.0r5

Further improving the robustness and maintainability of the project

Yesterday and today most of my time went into fixing a vulnerability uncovered by Mozilla.

Technically, I am being employed by digitial@M now for of up 6 months with a regular working contract, including cancellation by either party, remotely from home. There is plenty to do.

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