The password-validation plugin is named validate_password. To be usable by the server, the plugin library object file must be located in the MySQL plugin directory (the directory named by the plugin_dir system variable). If necessary, set the value of plugin_dir at server startup to tell the server the location of the plugin directory.

To load the plugin at server startup, use the --plugin-load option to name the object file that contains the plugin. With this plugin-loading method, the option must be given each time the server starts. For example, put these lines in your my.cnf file:

[mysqld]
plugin-load=validate_password.so

If object files have a suffix different from .so on your system, substitute the correct suffix (for example, .dll on Windows).

Alternatively, to register the plugin at runtime, use this statement (changing the extension as necessary):

mysql> INSTALL PLUGIN validate_password SONAME 'validate_password.so';

INSTALL PLUGIN loads the plugin, and also registers it in the mysql.plugins table to cause the plugin to be loaded for each subsequent normal server startup.

If the plugin has been previously registered with INSTALL PLUGIN or is loaded with --plugin-load, you can use the --validate-password option at server startup to control plugin activation. For example, to load the plugin and prevent it from being removed at runtime, use these options:

[mysqld]
plugin-load=validate_password.so
validate-password=FORCE_PLUS_PERMANENT

If it is desired to prevent the server from running without the password-validation plugin, use --validate-password with a value of FORCE or FORCE_PLUS_PERMANENT to force server startup to fail if the plugin does not initialize successfully.

For general information about installing plugins, see Server Plugins. To verify plugin installation, examine the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PLUGINS table or use the SHOW PLUGINS statement. See Obtaining Server Plugin Information.