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# Load Extension Plugin

Beets uses an SQLite database to store and query library information, which has support for extensions to extend its functionality. The `loadext` plugin lets you enable these SQLite extensions within beets.

One of the primary uses of this within beets is with the “ICU” extension, which adds support for case insensitive querying of non-ASCII characters.

## Configuration

To configure the plugin, make a `loadext` section in your configuration file. The section must consist of a list of paths to extensions to load, which looks like this:

    loadext:
      - libicu

If a relative path is specified, it is resolved relative to the beets configuration directory.

If no file extension is specified, the default dynamic library extension for the current platform will be used.

## Building the ICU extension

This section is for advanced users only, and is not an in-depth guide on building the extension.

To compile the ICU extension, you will need a few dependencies:

> - gcc

> - icu-devtools

> - libicu

> - libicu-dev

> - libsqlite3-dev

Here’s roughly how to download, build and install the extension (although the specifics may vary from system to system):

    $ wget https://sqlite.org/2019/sqlite-src-3280000.zip
    $ unzip sqlite-src-3280000.zip
    $ cd sqlite-src-3280000/ext/icu
    $ gcc -shared -fPIC icu.c $(icu-config --ldflags) -o libicu.so
    $ cp libicu.so ~/.config/beets