uninstall_plugin( string $plugin ): true|void

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

$pluginstring

Path to the plugin file relative to the plugins directory.

Return value

true|void

True if a plugin's uninstall.php file has been found and included.
Void otherwise.

Performance profile

How much work a call to uninstall_plugin() 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 or writes the filesystem via file_exists().

Scaling

Constant

No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.

Instructions

27–54

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 79.

Plugin surface

2 hooks

Third-party callbacks on 'pre_uninstall_plugin', 'uninstall_{$file}' run inside this call, and their cost is not bounded by anything here.

Called by

1

1 place in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.

What it touches

• optionoption read or writeget_option()called directly
• hookthird-party callbacksdo_action()called directly
• filesystemfilesystem accessfile_exists()called directly
• cacheobject cachewp_cache_get()one call below uninstall_plugin()
• serializeserialisationmaybe_unserialize()one call below uninstall_plugin()

Further down the call graph this can also reach 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 · 4 distinct outcomes

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

Hooks and filters fired · 2

2 hooks fire while uninstall_plugin() runs, in this order:

1. 1
   do_action( pre_uninstall_plugin )actionline 1302 (+13 into the body)

   Fires in uninstall_plugin() immediately before the plugin is uninstalled.

2. 2
   do_action( uninstall_{$file} )actionline 1338 (+49 into the body)

   Fires in uninstall_plugin() once the plugin has been uninstalled.

Uses · 6

• plugin_basename()Gets the basename of a plugin.
• get_option()Retrieves an option value based on an option name.
• do_action()Calls the callback functions that have been added to an action hook.
• update_option()Updates the value of an option that was already added.
• wp_register_plugin_realpath()Register a plugin's real path.
• add_action()Adds a callback function to an action hook.

Used by · 1

• delete_plugins()Removes directory and files of a plugin for a list of plugins.

Source code

View on Trac ↗View on GitHub ↗

1289function uninstall_plugin( $plugin ) {1290	$file = plugin_basename( $plugin );1291 1292	$uninstallable_plugins = (array) get_option( 'uninstall_plugins' );1293 1294	/**1295	 * Fires in uninstall_plugin() immediately before the plugin is uninstalled.1296	 *1297	 * @since 4.5.01298	 *1299	 * @param string $plugin                Path to the plugin file relative to the plugins directory.1300	 * @param array  $uninstallable_plugins Uninstallable plugins.1301	 */1302	do_action( 'pre_uninstall_plugin', $plugin, $uninstallable_plugins );1303 1304	if ( file_exists( WP_PLUGIN_DIR . '/' . dirname( $file ) . '/uninstall.php' ) ) {1305		if ( isset( $uninstallable_plugins[ $file ] ) ) {1306			unset( $uninstallable_plugins[ $file ] );1307			update_option( 'uninstall_plugins', $uninstallable_plugins );1308		}1309		unset( $uninstallable_plugins );1310 1311		define( 'WP_UNINSTALL_PLUGIN', $file );1312 1313		wp_register_plugin_realpath( WP_PLUGIN_DIR . '/' . $file );1314		include_once WP_PLUGIN_DIR . '/' . dirname( $file ) . '/uninstall.php';1315 1316		return true;1317	}1318 1319	if ( isset( $uninstallable_plugins[ $file ] ) ) {1320		$callable = $uninstallable_plugins[ $file ];1321		unset( $uninstallable_plugins[ $file ] );1322		update_option( 'uninstall_plugins', $uninstallable_plugins );1323		unset( $uninstallable_plugins );1324 1325		wp_register_plugin_realpath( WP_PLUGIN_DIR . '/' . $file );1326		include_once WP_PLUGIN_DIR . '/' . $file;1327 1328		add_action( "uninstall_{$file}", $callable );1329 1330		/**1331		 * Fires in uninstall_plugin() once the plugin has been uninstalled.1332		 *1333		 * The action concatenates the 'uninstall_' prefix with the basename of the1334		 * plugin passed to uninstall_plugin() to create a dynamically-named action.1335		 *1336		 * @since 2.7.01337		 */1338		do_action( "uninstall_{$file}" );1339	}1340}

Changelog

Introduced in 2.7.0. One change between 6.7.7 and 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

Something wrong on this page? Report it and it gets fixed in the next regeneration.