No plugins loaded when user loads wp-activate.php

[conner_bw]

When a user gets an activation email they are asked to click on a URL that looks something like:

​https://site/wp-activate.php?key=16d1406f53bc783f

Expected: I can hook into actions and filters from in my plugin.

Actual: wp_get_active_and_valid_plugins() returns an empty array, no plugins are ever loaded.

Why? Because:

First line of wp-activate.php:

<?php
define( 'WP_INSTALLING', true );

Code to load plugins in wp_get_active_and_valid_plugins() if we remove the deprecated helper stuff:

<?php
$plugins = array();
$active_plugins = (array) get_option( 'active_plugins', array() );
if ( empty( $active_plugins ) || wp_installing() ) 
    return $plugins;

Help?

See:

[1] ​https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/master/wp-includes/load.php
[2] ​https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/master/wp-activate.php

[johnbillion]

Duplicate of #23197.