If installed, Version Tokens involves some overhead. To avoid this overhead, do not install it unless you plan to use it.
This section describes how to install or uninstall Version Tokens, which is implemented in a plugin library file containing a plugin and loadable functions. For general information about installing or uninstalling plugins and loadable functions, see Section 7.6.1, “Installing and Uninstalling Plugins”, and Section 7.7.1, “Installing and Uninstalling Loadable Functions”.
        To be usable by the server, the plugin library file must be
        located in the MySQL plugin directory (the directory named by
        the plugin_dir system
        variable). If necessary, configure the plugin directory location
        by setting the value of
        plugin_dir at server startup.
      
        The plugin library file base name is
        version_tokens. The file name suffix differs
        per platform (for example, .so for Unix and
        Unix-like systems, .dll for Windows).
      
        To install the Version Tokens plugin and functions, use the
        INSTALL PLUGIN and
        CREATE FUNCTION statements,
        adjusting the .so suffix for your platform
        as necessary:
      
INSTALL PLUGIN version_tokens SONAME 'version_token.so';
CREATE FUNCTION version_tokens_set RETURNS STRING
  SONAME 'version_token.so';
CREATE FUNCTION version_tokens_show RETURNS STRING
  SONAME 'version_token.so';
CREATE FUNCTION version_tokens_edit RETURNS STRING
  SONAME 'version_token.so';
CREATE FUNCTION version_tokens_delete RETURNS STRING
  SONAME 'version_token.so';
CREATE FUNCTION version_tokens_lock_shared RETURNS INT
  SONAME 'version_token.so';
CREATE FUNCTION version_tokens_lock_exclusive RETURNS INT
  SONAME 'version_token.so';
CREATE FUNCTION version_tokens_unlock RETURNS INT
  SONAME 'version_token.so';You must install the functions to manage the server's version token list, but you must also install the plugin because the functions do not work correctly without it.
If the plugin and functions are used on a replication source server, install them on all replica servers as well to avoid replication problems.
        Once installed as just described, the plugin and functions
        remain installed until uninstalled. To remove them, use the
        UNINSTALL PLUGIN and
        DROP FUNCTION statements:
      
UNINSTALL PLUGIN version_tokens;
DROP FUNCTION version_tokens_set;
DROP FUNCTION version_tokens_show;
DROP FUNCTION version_tokens_edit;
DROP FUNCTION version_tokens_delete;
DROP FUNCTION version_tokens_lock_shared;
DROP FUNCTION version_tokens_lock_exclusive;
DROP FUNCTION version_tokens_unlock;