Whereto put "plugins" in linux

Question

I am currently developing/hacking an image analyzing/transforming tool. The filters therein will be loaded at runtime using dlopen&co.

My question is where do *nix tools usually put plugins (*.so files) when installed?

bin/program
lib/program/plugins/thisandthat.so

maybe?

Secondly how do I use it and where do I put it during development without installing it. (this is probably the tricky part)

I want to avoid shell-scripts if possible.

thanks in regard Ronny

Answer 1

Usually /usr/lib/programmname should be a good spot

During development I'd create a command line paramter to specify the plugin search path and just leave the plugins in the build-dir for example.

Answer 2

Consider:

/usr/lib/program/*.so