Is there a file-system level way to disable an add-on?

[kfsone]

For instance, by creating a ".disabled" file in a given directory?

It gets tedious having to remove addons all the time for debugging, and an option like this would make ckan's life easier, maybe.

I would suggest:

GameData/
|  bar/
|  |  baz/ <-- loaded

|  foobar.disabled    <-- don't go into foobar from here
|  foobar/ <-- not loaded
|  |  stuff/ <-- not seen to be loaded

|  foobaz/
|  |  .disabled <-- don't load from me, but continue descending if you will
|  |  stuff/ <-- loaded

|  mario.dll <-- loaded
|  luigi.dll <-- not loaded
|  luigi.dll.disabled

[Diazo]

No, KSP loads every .dll file in the GameData directory.

You can just rename the file from MyMod.dll to MyMod.backup and it won't load however.

D.

[NathanKell]

Correction: Stick it under a PluginData folder and KSP ignores it.

[Diazo]

Really? How did that come about?

This is the first I've heard about it and it seems rather arbitrary.

D.

[Fail-Man 3D]

As of <some-ancient-version>, "chmod a-rx BadPlugin.dll" would cause the game to hang when it tried to load the plugin.

I don't have 1.0.5 set up to test with (due to disk space issues + a heavily-modded career save), but I can test with 1.0.4 within the next few hours.

EDIT: Looks like this was fixed; the game now logs an UnauthorizedAccessException and skips the plugin instead of freezing.

Edited November 11, 2015 by Fail-Man 3D

[stupid_chris]

Really? How did that come about?

This is the first I've heard about it and it seems rather arbitrary.

D.

This is old. It's used for storing files and data that a plugin needs to load/save itself rather than having the game put it into the memory without it being needed. Dates from when plugins started being loaded in the game around... .14? I think?