What is plugins and how it is work in mysql?

Question

I am explore about partition in MySql official site (https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/partitioning.html). In very first page, i found plugins.

mysql> show plugins;
+----------------------------+----------+--------------------+---------+---------+
| Name                       | Status   | Type               | Library | License |
+----------------------------+----------+--------------------+---------+---------+
| binlog                     | ACTIVE   | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
| mysql_native_password      | ACTIVE   | AUTHENTICATION     | NULL    | GPL     |
| mysql_old_password         | ACTIVE   | AUTHENTICATION     | NULL    | GPL     |
| sha256_password            | ACTIVE   | AUTHENTICATION     | NULL    | GPL     |
| MyISAM                     | ACTIVE   | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
| MRG_MYISAM                 | ACTIVE   | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
| MEMORY                     | ACTIVE   | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
| CSV                        | ACTIVE   | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
| InnoDB                     | ACTIVE   | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_TRX                 | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_LOCKS               | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_LOCK_WAITS          | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_CMP                 | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_CMP_RESET           | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_CMPMEM              | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_CMPMEM_RESET        | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_CMP_PER_INDEX       | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_CMP_PER_INDEX_RESET | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_BUFFER_PAGE         | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_BUFFER_PAGE_LRU     | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_BUFFER_POOL_STATS   | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_METRICS             | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_FT_DEFAULT_STOPWORD | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_FT_DELETED          | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_FT_BEING_DELETED    | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_FT_CONFIG           | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_FT_INDEX_CACHE      | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_FT_INDEX_TABLE      | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_SYS_TABLES          | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_SYS_TABLESTATS      | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_SYS_INDEXES         | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_SYS_COLUMNS         | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_SYS_FIELDS          | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_SYS_FOREIGN         | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_SYS_FOREIGN_COLS    | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_SYS_TABLESPACES     | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| INNODB_SYS_DATAFILES       | ACTIVE   | INFORMATION SCHEMA | NULL    | GPL     |
| PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA         | ACTIVE   | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
| FEDERATED                  | DISABLED | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
| ARCHIVE                    | ACTIVE   | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
| BLACKHOLE                  | ACTIVE   | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
| partition                  | ACTIVE   | STORAGE ENGINE     | NULL    | GPL     |
+----------------------------+----------+--------------------+---------+---------+
42 rows in set (0.05 sec)

In my mind having some questions

1. What is plugins ?
2. How it is work ?
3. How much plugin available for MySql?
4. Can i add other plugins ?
5. If i can add then how to add ?

Answer 1

After analysis About Plugin, I found more thing about it. I explain in deep.

What is plugins and How it is work?

MySQL supports a plugin API that enables creation of server components. Plugins can be loaded at server startup, or loaded and unloaded at runtime without restarting the server. The API is generic and does not specify what plugins can do. The components supported by this interface include, but are not limited to, storage engines, full-text parser plugins, and server extensions.

For example, full-text parser plugins can be used to replace or augment the built-in full-text parser. A plugin can parse text into words using rules that differ from those used by the built-in parser. This can be useful if you need to parse text with characteristics different from those expected by the built-in parser.

The plugin interface is more general than the older user-defined function (UDF) interface.

How much plugin available for MySql? (Types of Plugins)

The plugin API enables creation of plugins that implement several capabilities:

• Storage engines
• Full-text parsers
• Daemons
• INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables
• Semisynchronous replication
• Auditing
• Authentication
• Password validation and strength checking
• Protocol tracing
• Query rewriting

Can i add other plugins ? / If i can add then how to add ?

Plugins installed with the INSTALL PLUGIN statement:

A plugin located in a plugin library file can be loaded at runtime with the INSTALL PLUGIN statement. The statement also registers the plugin in the mysql.plugin table to cause the server to load it on subsequent restarts. For this reason, INSTALL PLUGIN requires the INSERT privilege for the mysql.plugin table.

mysql> INSTALL PLUGIN myplugin SONAME 'somepluglib.so';

Uninstalling Plugins

At runtime, the UNINSTALL PLUGIN statement disables and uninstalls a plugin known to the server. The statement unloads the plugin and removes it from the mysql.plugin table, if it is registered there. For this reason, UNINSTALL PLUGIN statement requires the DELETE privilege for the mysql.plugin table. With the plugin no longer registered in the table, the server will not load the plugin automatically for subsequent restarts.