How are library versions managed?

Q. How are library versions managed?
A. Three ways: run time by oik-lib, build time by WordPress, and both run time and build time by plugins The oik-lib plugin attempts to manage the loading of library files at run-time.

• It manages loading of dependent libraries
• It performs basic checking of library version compatibility

At build time, standard WordPress update functions, combined with plugin dependency logic, ensure that the plugins that deliver libraries are compatible with each other. Plugins which are dependent upon other plugins should record their plugin dependencies using a dependency API. At present the dependency API used is delivered by the oik base plugin. At run time, plugins which require shared library functions should use the documented APIs to ensure safe execution of library functions.

Notes

• It is the plugin author’s responsibility to implement dependency checking sensibly
• It is the plugin author’s responsibility to package libraries sensibly
• If incompatibilities are discovered then these should be reported to the plugin authors