WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) Cheatsheet

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) allows developers to run a GNU/Linux environment directly on Windows, unmodified, without the overhead of a traditional virtual machine or dualboot setup.

Installation & Setup (Run in PowerShell)

wsl --install               # Install WSL with default Ubuntu distribution
wsl --install -d Debian     # Install a specific distribution
wsl --list --online         # List available distributions
wsl --update                # Update the WSL Linux kernel

Managing Distributions (Run in PowerShell/CMD)

wsl -l -v                   # List installed distributions and their WSL version
wsl --set-default Ubuntu    # Set default distribution
wsl --set-version Ubuntu 2  # Convert distribution to WSL 2
wsl --shutdown              # Terminate all running distributions and the WSL 2 lightweight utility VM
wsl -t Ubuntu               # Terminate a specific distribution
wsl --unregister Ubuntu     # Delete a distribution (Warning: Deletes all data!)

File System Access

Accessing Windows files from WSL

Windows drives are mounted under /mnt/.

cd /mnt/c/Users/Username/Documents

Accessing WSL files from Windows

Open File Explorer and type the following in the address bar:

\\wsl$

Or type this inside your WSL terminal to open Windows Explorer in the current Linux directory:

explorer.exe .

Networking

WSL 2 uses a virtualized network adapter. To get the IP address of your WSL 2 instance (from inside WSL):

ip addr show eth0 | grep -oP '(?<=inet\s)\d+(\.\d+){3}'

To run Windows executables from inside WSL:

ipconfig.exe
ping.exe google.com

Advanced Configuration (`.wslconfig`)

You can configure global WSL 2 settings by creating a .wslconfig file in your Windows user profile folder (C:\Users\<YourUsername>\.wslconfig).

[wsl2]
memory=4GB       # Limits VM memory to use no more than 4 GB
processors=2     # Makes the WSL 2 VM use two virtual processors
localhostForwarding=true # Allow connecting to WSL from Windows localhost

Cheatsheets