# Embedding GPlugin

You can embed GPlugin into any language that has GObject-Introspection support, but in this example we're going to look at embedding GPlugin into a C based project.

GPlugin was designed to be simple to implement and use. Initialization and teardown examples can be found below.

During the start up of your application you need to add the following code:

          /* Initialize the GPlugin library */
          gplugin_init();

          /* Tell GPlugin to look for plugins in its default paths */
          gplugin_manager_add_default_paths();

          /* Optionally tell GPlugin to look for plugins in application specific
           * paths.  This will add `$PREFIX/lib/application`.
           */
          gplugin_manager_add_app_paths(PREFIX, "application");

          /* Once you're ready to find/load plugins call g_plugin_manager_refresh.
           */
          gplugin_manager_refresh();

When your application is shutting down you need to uninitialize GPlugin by calling

          gplugin_uninit();