Plugins are a feature to modify the way how Nuitka compiles Python programs in extremely flexible ways.
Plugins can automatically include data files and additional shared libraries, import modules not detectable by source code examination, modify or extend the to-be-compiled source code, gather statistics, change Nuitka's parameter defaults and much more.
Any number of plugins may be used in each compilation.
A whole new dimension of flexibility can be added by using options to control a plugin's functioning.
Standard plugins are activated by the command line parameter --enable-plugin=<plugin_name>. The parameter plugin_name must equal the plugin's variable with the same name, so that Nuitka can identify it.
User plugins are activated by the command line parameter --user-plugin=<script.py>, where the parameter is a filename (-path) of a Python script implementing the plugin protocol, i.e. it must be a class that inherits nuitka.plugins.PluginBase.UserPluginBase just like every Nuitka plugin.
Plugin options can be added by overloading the method
@classmethod
def addPluginCommandLineOptions(cls, group):
... # add options to "group" here.Here you extend the optparser group with any amount of options you choose. Be careful with the dest names, try to make names that will not collide with other plugins, as we have no per plugin namespace here.
To see a working example for a user plugin with options, consult this document.