activate_plugins( string|string[] $plugins, string $redirect = '', bool $network_wide = false, bool $silent = false ): true|WP_Error

Description

Compatibility

Present in every tracked release (6.7.7 to 7.1.0), and compiles on PHP 7.4 through 8.6-dev.

Parameters

$pluginsstring|string[]

Single plugin or list of plugins to activate.

$redirectstringoptional

Redirect to page after successful activation.Default: ''

$network_widebooloptional

Whether to enable the plugin for all sites in the network.
Default false.Default: false

$silentbooloptional

Prevent calling activation hooks. Default false.Default: false

Return value

true|WP_Error

True when finished or WP_Error if there were errors during a plugin activation.

Performance profile

How much work a call to activate_plugins() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.

Cost class

Heavy

Reads stored settings via get_site_option(), cached per request but not free on a cold cache.

Scaling

Scales with input

The body loops, so the work grows with what you pass in.

Instructions

12–23

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 46.

Plugin surface

None

Nothing here hands control to plugin code.

Called by

0

Nothing in core calls this; the cost is only what you spend yourself.

What it touches

• optionnetwork optionget_site_option()one call below activate_plugins()
• hookthird-party callbacksdo_action()one call below activate_plugins()

Further down the call graph this can also reach cache, serialize, query and transient. Those are the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.

What one call costs · 2 distinct outcomes

One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost activate_plugins() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.

Uses · 5

• add_query_arg()Retrieves a modified URL query string.
• activate_plugin()Attempts activation of plugin in a "sandbox" and redirects on success.
• is_wp_error()Checks whether the given variable is a WordPress Error.
• __()Retrieves the translation of $text.
• WP_Error::__construct()Initializes the error.

Source code

View on Trac ↗View on GitHub ↗

869function activate_plugins( $plugins, $redirect = '', $network_wide = false, $silent = false ) {870	if ( ! is_array( $plugins ) ) {871		$plugins = array( $plugins );872	}873 874	$errors = array();875	foreach ( $plugins as $plugin ) {876		if ( ! empty( $redirect ) ) {877			$redirect = add_query_arg( 'plugin', $plugin, $redirect );878		}879		$result = activate_plugin( $plugin, $redirect, $network_wide, $silent );880		if ( is_wp_error( $result ) ) {881			$errors[ $plugin ] = $result;882		}883	}884 885	if ( ! empty( $errors ) ) {886		return new WP_Error( 'plugins_invalid', __( 'One of the plugins is invalid.' ), $errors );887	}888 889	return true;890}

Changelog

Introduced in 2.6.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.

1. 6.7.7
2. 6.8.8
3. 6.9.7
4. 7.0.4
5. 7.1.0

Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.

About this page

Parsed data

Generated from the wordpress-develop 6.8.8 tag, from src/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.

Corrections

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