wp_update_plugins( array $extra_stats = array() )
- Since
- 2.3.0
- Source
wp-includes/update.php:315
Description
Despite its name this function does not actually perform any updates, it only checks for available updates.
A list of all plugins installed is sent to WP, along with the site locale.
Checks against the WordPress server at api.wordpress.org. Will only check if WordPress isn't installing.
Compatibility
- WordPress
- since 2.3.0
- PHP
- 7.4–8.6-dev
- 6.7.7
- 6.8.8
- 6.9.7
- 7.0.4
- 7.1.0
Present in every tracked release (6.7.7 to 7.1.0), and compiles on PHP 7.4 through 8.6-dev.
Parameters
$extra_statsarrayoptional- Extra statistics to report to the WordPress.org API.Default:
array()
Performance profile
How much work a call to wp_update_plugins() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.
- Cost class
- Expensive
- Scaling
- Constant
- Instructions
- 6
- Plugin surface
- 2 hooks
- Called by
- 5
Reaches an outbound HTTP request via wp_remote_post().
No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.
Executed per call on PHP 8.5. The body compiles to 389.
Third-party callbacks on 'plugins_update_check_locales', 'update_plugins_{$hostname}' run inside this call, and their cost is not bounded by anything here.
5 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.
What it touches
- optionoption read or write
get_option()called directly - transienttransient
get_site_transient()called directly - hookthird-party callbacks
apply_filters()called directly - httpoutbound HTTP request
wp_remote_post()called directly - cacheobject cache
wp_cache_get()one call below wp_update_plugins() - serializeserialisation
maybe_unserialize()one call below wp_update_plugins()
Further down the call graph this can also reach query. That is the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.
What one call costs · 1 distinct outcome
One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost wp_update_plugins() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
| always | 6 | none |
Across PHP versions
| PHP | Compiled | Executed | Branches | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.6-dev | 389 | 6 | 47 | |
| 8.5 | 389 | 6 | 47 | |
| 8.4 | 389 | 6 | 47 | |
| 8.3 | 389 | 6 | 47 | |
| 8.2 | 389 | 6 | 47 | 1 more instruction than PHP 8.1 |
| 8.1 | 388 | 6 | 47 | 2 fewer instructions than PHP 7.4 |
| 7.4 | 390 | 6 | 47 |
An instruction is not a fixed amount of time, so a matching count is not necessarily the same speed; what it rules out is a difference in the work itself.
Hooks and filters fired · 2
2 hooks fire while wp_update_plugins() runs, in this order:
- apply_filters( plugins_update_check_locales )filterline 407 (+92 into the body)
Filters the locales requested for plugin translations.
- apply_filters( update_plugins_{$hostname} )filterline 514 (+199 into the body)
Filters the update response for a given plugin hostname.
Uses · 24
- wp_installing()Checks or sets whether WordPress is in "installation" mode.
- get_plugins()Checks the plugins directory and retrieve all plugin files with plugin data.
- wp_get_installed_translations()Gets installed translations.
- get_option()Retrieves an option value based on an option name.
- get_site_transient()Retrieves the value of a site transient.
- wp_doing_cron()Determines whether the current request is a WordPress cron request.
- current_filter()Retrieves the name of the current filter hook.
- set_site_transient()Sets/updates the value of a site transient.
- get_available_languages()Gets all available languages based on the presence of *.mo and *.l10n.php files in a given directory.
- apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.
- wp_json_encode()Encodes a variable into JSON, with some confidence checks.
- wp_get_wp_version()Returns the current WordPress version.
Show all 24
- home_url()Retrieves the URL for the current site where the front end is accessible.
- wp_http_supports()Determines if there is an HTTP Transport that can process this request.
- set_url_scheme()Sets the scheme for a URL.
- wp_remote_post()Performs an HTTP request using the POST method and returns its response.
- is_wp_error()Checks whether the given variable is a WordPress Error.
- wp_trigger_error()Generates a user-level error/warning/notice/deprecation message.
- __()Retrieves the translation of $text.
- wp_remote_retrieve_response_code()Retrieves only the response code from the raw response.
- wp_remote_retrieve_body()Retrieves only the body from the raw response.
- wp_parse_url()A wrapper for PHP's parse_url() function that handles consistency in the return values across PHP versions.
- sanitize_url()Sanitizes a URL for database or redirect usage.
- stdClass::__construct()
Used by · 5
- WP_Automatic_Updater::run()Kicks off the background update process, looping through all pending updates.
- WP_Debug_Data::check_for_updates()Calls all core functions to check for updates.
- _maybe_update_plugins()Checks the last time plugins were run before checking plugin versions.
- install_plugin_install_status()Determines the status we can perform on a plugin.
- wp_ajax_update_plugin()Handles updating a plugin via AJAX.
Source code
function wp_update_plugins( $extra_stats = array() ) { if ( wp_installing() ) { return; } // If running blog-side, bail unless we've not checked in the last 12 hours. if ( ! function_exists( 'get_plugins' ) ) { require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/plugin.php'; } $plugins = get_plugins(); $translations = wp_get_installed_translations( 'plugins' ); $active = get_option( 'active_plugins', array() ); $current = get_site_transient( 'update_plugins' ); if ( ! is_object( $current ) ) { $current = new stdClass(); } $updates = new stdClass(); $updates->last_checked = time(); $updates->response = array(); $updates->translations = array(); $updates->no_update = array(); $doing_cron = wp_doing_cron(); // Check for update on a different schedule, depending on the page. switch ( current_filter() ) { case 'upgrader_process_complete': $timeout = 0; break; case 'load-update-core.php': $timeout = MINUTE_IN_SECONDS; break; case 'load-plugins.php': case 'load-update.php': $timeout = HOUR_IN_SECONDS; break; default: if ( $doing_cron ) { $timeout = 2 * HOUR_IN_SECONDS; } else { $timeout = 12 * HOUR_IN_SECONDS; } } $time_not_changed = isset( $current->last_checked ) && $timeout > ( time() - $current->last_checked ); if ( $time_not_changed && ! $extra_stats ) { $plugin_changed = false; foreach ( $plugins as $file => $p ) { $updates->checked[ $file ] = $p['Version']; if ( ! isset( $current->checked[ $file ] ) || (string) $current->checked[ $file ] !== (string) $p['Version'] ) { $plugin_changed = true; } } if ( isset( $current->response ) && is_array( $current->response ) ) { foreach ( $current->response as $plugin_file => $update_details ) { if ( ! isset( $plugins[ $plugin_file ] ) ) { $plugin_changed = true; break; } } } // Bail if we've checked recently and if nothing has changed. if ( ! $plugin_changed ) { return; } } // Update last_checked for current to prevent multiple blocking requests if request hangs. $current->last_checked = time(); set_site_transient( 'update_plugins', $current );Changelog
Introduced in 2.3.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.
Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.
About this page
- Parsed data
- Generated from the wordpress-develop 6.7.7 tag, from
src/wp-includes/update.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.