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(on Wikipedia)
https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL
https://msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/wsl/

I'm working with it to replace Git on Windows and Babun.

• I use Debian (Debian in the Microsoft store)
• aka wsl

• Sometimes known as Bash on Ubuntu on Windows or Bash on Windows

  • Not related to Git on Windows.
• https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/

• See also My Windows Subsystem for Linux scripts.

• 2018-10-10 - I used to use Babun

cowsay

• https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about

Installing ∞

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10

• Manual installation

0. Preparation

You will be prompted to reboot.

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator

Open cmd as Administrator and type powershell.

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

2. Install Debian

Debian GNU/Linux

When prompted, choose to launch it. This will complete its installation.

Shortcuts ∞

By default, you will have a new "Debian GNU/Linux" in you start menu.

Shortcut to your home directory ∞

If you want to create a shortcut, you can make it with the target:

%windir%\System32\bash.exe ~

Or

%windir%\System32\wsl.exe ~

Shortcut to the current directory ∞

You can also make the target like the above, without the trailing ~, like either of these:

%windir%\System32\bash.exe
%windir%\System32\wsl.exe

And then make Start in

%V

Make blue on black legible ∞

As of 2019-01-07 this is unnecessary.

• Use ColorTool (downloads)
• they know this
• Introducing the Windows Console Colortool

• See also 24-bit Color in the Windows Console!

The easy way:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console]
"ColorTable00"=dword:000c0c0c
"ColorTable01"=dword:00da3700
"ColorTable02"=dword:000ea113
"ColorTable03"=dword:00dd963a
"ColorTable04"=dword:001f0fc5
"ColorTable05"=dword:00981788
"ColorTable06"=dword:00009cc1
"ColorTable07"=dword:00cccccc
"ColorTable08"=dword:00767676
"ColorTable09"=dword:00ff783b
"ColorTable10"=dword:000cc616
"ColorTable11"=dword:00d6d661
"ColorTable12"=dword:005648e7
"ColorTable13"=dword:009e00b4
"ColorTable14"=dword:00a5f1f9
"ColorTable15"=dword:00f2f2f2

Add context menu ∞

It's supposed to be there, but isn't..

• "Bash Here" Context Menu in Windows Explorer

-

• This has been modified to use Zsh as a shell. It's a bit hackish.

• Unfortunately, due to the nature of WindowsApps, I cannot provide something that will work unmodified. Change SOMETHING to your appropriate code.

  • I used Process Lasso, then did
    -- right-click > Locate > Locate executable on disk ...

Note that there is no simple way to expand something like %windir% in a .reg file. The default is a REG-SZ type, but you have to encode it as hex to make it a REG_EXPAND_SZ type.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Get 'TheDebianProject.DebianGNULinux_SOMETHING' from
; C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Debian]
@="Debian &Shell"
; This will likely be particular to the user.
"Icon"="C:\\Program Files\\WindowsApps\\TheDebianProject.DebianGNULinux_SOMETHING\\debian.exe"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Debian\Command]
@="debian.exe run  bash.exe -c zsh"


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Debian]
@="Debian &Shell"
; This will likely be particular to the user.
"Icon"="C:\\Program Files\\WindowsApps\\TheDebianProject.DebianGNULinux_SOMETHING\\debian.exe"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Debian\Command]
@="debian.exe run  bash.exe -c zsh"

Usage ∞

Locating the files from Windows ∞

For Debian it will be something like:

C:\Users\$USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\TheDebianProject.DebianGNULinux_$CODE\LocalState\rootfs

Replace $USERNAME and $CODE as appropriate.

Visit C:\Users\$USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\ to figure out your installation code. Why is it done like this? Who knows! Maybe it's for the same reason Firefox does it: To make it (somehow) difficult for attacks to find that directory.

Using the files from Windows [DO NOT DO THIS!] ∞

Due to the nature of Microsoft's fuckery, you can sort of access things, but DO NOT ADD ANYTHING AND DO NOT MAKE CHANGES or you will corrupt the everloving fuck out of your whole thing.

TODO - One possible solution: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/2016/06/15/wsl-file-system-support/

Running GUI software on Windows Subsystem for Linux ∞

Thanks to https://seanthegeek.net/234

1. Download https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/
2. Install
3. Run the icon from your desktop
4. Accept all defaults
5. Deny network access

6. In your Windows Subsystem for Linux shell, do

\export  DISPLAY=localhost:0.0

.. now you can run a GUI app. Install something like Leafpad.

\sudo  \apt-get  install  leafpad

Now leafpad will launch the GUI text editor.

Mounting a USB drive ∞

\sudo  \mkdir    /mnt/d
\sudo  \mount  -t drvfs  d:  /mnt/d

Why isn't this possible by default? Who knows!

Mounting a network drive ∞

If it does not already have a drive letter, but does have a UNC path, you'd do:

\sudo  \mkdir  /mnt/share
\sudo  \mount  -t drvfs  '\\server\share'  /mnt/share

Issues ∞

• 2019-02-17 -- For some time I haven't been able to properly run some scripts. They seem to be mangled or chopped up somehow, and the attempt to execute them only sees some of the text in the file.

  • I expect that this is some sort of encoding difference. Maybe it's line endings, but dos2unix didn't work. I think perhaps it's some sort of international character encoding thing, like UTF-8 versus whatever.
  • Everything looks fine with less and Nano. Scripts which I create with Nano work as-expected. Maybe I have to re-create all magically-broken files.

• While I figured out how to create a shortcut with a hotkey, I cannot open multiple terminal instances with that hotkey.

  • For some time, the development team has been overhauling their terminal, and they are aware of the desire for a tabbed terminal.

• Permissions are not retained, and chmod is either ignored or has an error.

  • This must be fixed within Windows itself. I set all permissions as inheritable for all objects I'm trying to access (and subdirectories).
• Doesn't prompt when you close the terminal.

• Cannot use a hotkey to paste into a terminal

  • Supposedly solved by Windows Insider build 17643
  • https://insider.windows.com/en-us/
  • You can edit the preferences, and turn insert mode on, and then right-click to paste.