MySQL 5.1 and up supports a plugin API that allows the loading and
unloading of server components at runtime, without restarting the
server. Currently, the plugin API supports creation of full-text
parser plugins. Such a plugin can be used to replace or augment
the built-in full-text parser. For example, 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 intended as the successor to the older
user-defined function (UDF) interface. The plugin interface
eventually will include an API for creating UDFs, and it is
intended this plugin UDF API will replace the older non-plugin UDF
API. After that point, it will be possible for UDFs to be revised
for use as plugin UDFs so that they can take advantage of the
better security and versioning capabilities of the plugin API.
Eventually, support for the older UDF API will be phased out.
