WSL
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) lets developers run a GNU/Linux environment -- including most command-line tools, utilities, and applications -- directly on Windows, unmodified, without the overhead of a traditional virtual machine or dual-boot setup
🌐 learn.microsoft.com/windows/wsl
Installation
🌐 How to install Linux on Windows with WSL
Configuration
🌐 Advanced settings configuration in WSL
Commands
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
wsl --shutdown | Immediately terminates all running distributions and the WSL 2 lightweight utility virtual machine |
wsl --update | Updates the WSL version to the latest version |
Tips
Linux commands can be ran from Windows command prompt by adding wsl before:
wsl ls
From Linux we can access Windows files in /mnt/c/.
From Windows we can access Linux files in \\wsl.localhost\ (previously \\wsl$).
Features
Linux applications with a GUI
WSL now supports running Linux GUI applications (X11 and Wayland) on Windows in a fully integrated desktop experience
🌐 Run Linux GUI apps on the Windows Subsystem for Linux
Uses WSLg (Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI)
Examples:
Performance
For some codebases, store files inside WSL directory (Windows files are in /mnt/c and may cause issues).
To restrict the use of resources by WSL, create a text file %UserProfile%\.wslconfig in the current user's profile and restart wsl (wsl --shutdown):
[wsl2]
memory=8GB
processors=4
swap=2GB