.Dd January 22, 2014     \" DATE
.Dt pluginkit 8          \" Program name and manual section number
.Os Darwin
.Sh NAME                 \" Section Header - required - don't modify 
.Nm pluginkit
.Nd plugin plug-in extension pluginkit
.Sh SYNOPSIS             \" Section Header - required - don't modify
.Nm
.Fl m
.Op Fl ADv
.Op Fl p protocol
.Op Fl i identifier
.Op Ar key=value
.Op Ar ...
.br
.Nm
.Op Fl ar
.Op Fl v
.Op Ar
.br
.Nm
.Fl e
.Ar election
.Op Fl p protocol
.Op Fl i identifier
.Op Ar key=value
.Op Ar ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION          \" Section Header - required - don't modify
.Nm
manages the
.Ar PlugInKit
subsystem for the current user.\&
It can query the plug-in database and make limited interventions for debugging and development.
.Pp
A list of flags and their descriptions:
.Bl -tag -width -indent  \" Differs from above in tag removed
.It Fl A, -all-versions
Matches find all versions of a given plug-in known to the system.\&
By default, only the latest (highest) version is returned.
.It Fl a
Explicitly adds plugins at the file location(s) given, even if they are not normally eligible for automatic discovery.\&
Note that database clean-ups may eventually remove them in that case.
.It Fl e Ar election
Perform a matching operation (see -m) and apply the given user election setting to all matching plug-ins.\&
Elections can be "use", "ignore", and "default".\&
Elections are applied to all plug-ins with given identifier.
.It Fl D, -duplicates
Matches find all physical instances of a given plug-in known to the system, even multiple copies with the
same version.
.It Fl i, -identifier Ar identifier
Specifies a plug-in identifier to match, a short-hand for NSExtensionIdentifier=identifier.
.It Fl m -match
Requests
.Nm
to scan all registered plug-ins for those matching the given search criteria (see DISCOVERY MATCHING below).\&
.Pp
All matching plug-ins are returned, one per line.\&
Each line may begin with any one of the following tags indicating the user election state:
.Bl -inset -offset 4m
.It +
indicates that the user has elected to use the plug-in
.It -
indicates that the user has elected to ignore the plug-in
.It !
indicates that the user has elected to use the plug-in for debugger use
.It =
indicates that the plug-in is superseded by another plug-in
.It ?
unknown user election state
.El
.Pp
Add the
.Fl v
option to get more detailed output.\&
This is exactly reproducing the functionality of PlugInKit discovery, except that no host-specific restrictions are
imposed.\&
The
.Fl A
and
.Fl D
options affect the outcome.
.It Fl P -platform Ar platform
Explicitly specifies a plug-in platform to match (macOS only).\&
Can be provided multiple times on the command line and all specified platforms will be matched.

Available platforms: native, maccatalyst
.It Fl p -protocol Ar protocol
Specifies a plug-in protocol to match, a short-hand for NSExtensionPointName=protocol.
.It Fl r
Explicitly removes plugins at the file location(s) given.\&
Note that automatic discovery procedures may add them back if they are still present.
.It Fl -raw
Present replies from the management daemon (pkd) in raw XML form.\&
This is primarily useful for debugging and for reporting full state in bug reports.
.It Fl v
Asks for more verbose operation.\&
For matching requests, more detail is printed about each matched plug-in.\&
This option can be given more than once.
.El                      \" Ends the list
.Sh DISCOVERY MATCHING
During plug-in discovery, PlugInKit matches plug-ins against match criteria and delivers matching plug-ins.\&
Only plug-ins that match all given criteria are eligible.\&
Criteria are expressed as "key" (must be present) or "key=value" (key must be present and have the given value).\&
The -i and -p arguments are shorthands for the conventional identifier and protocol matching keys.
.Pp
All matching plug-ins are reduced according to the
.Fl A
and
.Fl D
options given.\&
With
.Fl D,
all eligible plug-ins are returned.\&
With
.Fl A,
the last-registered (by timestamp) instance of each version is returned.\&
By default, only the last instance of the highest version is returned.\&
Note that this reduction is applied after matching.
.Sh EXPLICIT CHANGES
The
.Fl a
and
.Fl r
options make changes to the system's plug-in registry.\&
The registry is designed to operate automatically, and will update on its own as applications are installed, 
removed, and discovered.\&
The options available through
.Nm
are intended only for limited manipulation during plug-in development and for certain maintenance tasks.\&
They cannot make permanent alterations of the automatic registry state.
.\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT      \" May not be needed
.\" .Bl -tag -width "ENV_VAR_1" -indent \" ENV_VAR_1 is width of the string ENV_VAR_1
.\" .It Ev ENV_VAR_1
.\" Description of ENV_VAR_1
.\" .It Ev ENV_VAR_2
.\" Description of ENV_VAR_2
.\" .El                      
.\".Sh FILES                \" File used or created by the topic of the man page
.\".Bl -tag -width "/Users/joeuser/Library/really_long_file_name" -compact
.\".It Pa /usr/share/file_name
.\"FILE_1 description
.\".It Pa /Users/joeuser/Library/really_long_file_name
.\".El                      \" Ends the list
.\" .Sh DIAGNOSTICS       \" May not be needed
.\" .Bl -diag
.\" .It Diagnostic Tag
.\" Diagnostic informtion here.
.\" .It Diagnostic Tag
.\" Diagnostic informtion here.
.\" .El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr launchd 8 ,
.Xr pkd 8
.\" .Sh BUGS              \" Document known, unremedied bugs
.Sh HISTORY           \" Document history if command behaves in a unique manner
The
.Nm
command first appeared in OS X 10.9.