Types of Plugins

To be clear, there is only one way of creating plugins, and that is through Ruby source files. The different “types” of plugins refers to packaging and usage of the plugins you create. There are two options for this:

• Manually required Ruby files
• RubyGems which are automatically found and loaded by Vagrant

Both options have legitimate pros and cons, and neither should be disregarded for the other, since it depends on what works best for the problem you’re solving. Details of the methods are below, along with the benefits of each.

Manually required Ruby Files

The first option is to create a simple Ruby file or files which are then manually required via a Vagrantfile. For example, if there was a plugin named “my_plugin” then you could use it like this, assuming the block shown below is your project Vagrantfile:

require 'my_plugin'

Vagrant::Config.run do |config|
  # ...
end

Pros: Very simple, can easily be packaged with your project, explicit in the Vagrantfile about what is being used.

Cons: Repetitive if you’re using this plugin all the time, no versioning, no way to specify dependencies.

Automatically Loaded RubyGems

The second option is to package your plugin as a RubyGem. If there is a file named vagrant_init.rb somewhere in your gem’s load path, then Vagrant automatically loads it. A typical vagrant_init.rb (assumed to be in your my_plugin gem) is shown below. They’re usually very simple.

# This file is automatically loaded by Vagrant. We use this to kick-start
# our plugin.
require 'my_plugin'

# Perhaps we do some Vagrant-specific stuff here as well, though not in
# this example.

Pros: Automatically available system wide, dependencies are managed by RubyGems, versioning is available, easy for users to upgrade their plugins.

Cons: Implicit loading, not packaged with your project.

Note if you use the gem packaging, the plugin will have to be installed with Vagrant using the vagrant gem command. This is because Vagrant packages and installers ship with a completely isolated RubyGems installation and never actually references your global RubyGems installation you may have.