What is the best way to override a plugin functionality?

xm1

Take for example.
I modified the Facebook and Twitter plugins just a little bit. I actually change the social sign buttons to something that is a bit more good looking.
I just updated to 2.1.12 and that modification is gone.
So is there a way I can override the functionality of a plugin, in this case just the underlying html of the social sign in buttons, without actually modifying the plugin.
Now I know I can just duplicate the plugin, rename it, and do whatever modification I want in the renamed version. But what happens when the plugin is updated and maybe a feature is added?

peregrine

if it is just css, you can change the css in custom.css of theme.

if you make other changes, you would need to keep track of your changes and compare against new version when updating, if you don't clone plugin.

there is no easy way, other than keeping meticulous details of your changes and applying to each new update.

As you say if you clone plugin, you essentially forked the plugin and you need to port changes or feature updates if a new version comes out.

It is no different than the staff maintaining multiple forks of vanilla (e.g. alpha, beta, stable, development, etc etc). they have to maintain it.

It is especially hard to maintain some vanilla plugins with git, since they play musical chairs with repositories, abandon forks delete forks, etc. One day it in core, next day it is addons, and then back to core.