Currently we look for dlopen() in -ldl. We *don't* look to see if we get dlopen without that library. So on a system without that library, like Tru64 5.1, the plugin support (including all KDC-side database access) will be broken. The failure mode for not having a plugin system implemented is to quietly not find any plugins, and let the caller deal (or fail to). For example, from kdb5_util create: create: Unable to find requested database type while creating database '/home/raeburn/krb5/krb5-1.5/alpha/Install/var/krb5kdc/principal' Ken