Windows 10: Export and Import Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL Distro in Windows 10

Brink · May 30, 2018

How to: Export and Import Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL Distro in Windows 10

How to Export and Import Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a new Windows 10 feature that enables you to run native Linux command-line tools directly on Windows, alongside your traditional Windows desktop and modern store apps.

Starting with Windows 10 build 18342 (19H1) and Windows 10 build 18836 (20H1), Microsoft added some new commands that will give you more functionality when using wsl.exe.

You can now export and import different WSL distros. Exporting a distro is accomplished by passing in --export as an argument and will output a tar file of your current distro. For example, you could use this functionality to share your distro setup with other people. Additionally, if you pass in --import as an argument you can import a tar file that contains the root file system of a Linux distro, which allows you to import any distro youd like (with any configuration youd like) as a new distro.

See also: What’s new for WSL in Windows 10 version 1903?

This tutorial will show you how to export and import Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) distros in Windows 10.

*Warning You will need to have Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) enabled to be able to export and import WSL distros in Windows 10.

CONTENTS:

Option One: Export Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10

Option Two: Import Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10

Option Three: Uninstall Imported Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10

OPTION ONE [/i] Export Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10
1. If you haven't already, you will need to perform the following actions to prepare the WSL distro (ex: Debian) you want to export.
A) Install the WSL distro (ex: Debian) from the Microsoft Store you want to export.

B) Open this WSL distro (ex: Debian) to finish installing and setup, make any changes you want, and close the distro.

C) Check for updates in the Microsoft Store app to make sure this WSL distro (ex: Debian) is fully updated, and close the Microsoft Store app when finished.
2. Open a command prompt.

3. Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. This will give you a list of all currently installed WSL distros for the current user. Make note of the WSL distro name (ex: Debian) you want to export. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow wsl --list --all

4. Enter the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow wsl --export <DistributionName> <Full path to .tar FileName>

*note Substitute <DistributionName> in the command above with the actual WSL distro name (ex: "Debian") from step 3 you want to export.

Substitute <Full path to .tar FileName> in the command above with the full path of the location (ex: "%UserProfile%\Desktop") to where you want to export with the name of the .tar file (ex: "Debian.tar") you want to use.

For example: wsl --export Debian %UserProfile%\Desktop\Debian.tar

5. When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.

6. This .tar file (ex: "Debian.tar") is the export of your custom WSL distro used to import with Option Two below.

OPTION TWO [/i] Import Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10
1. Option One for the WSL distro (ex: Debian) you want.

2. Open a command prompt.

3. Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. This will give you a list of all currently installed WSL distros for the current user. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow wsl --list --all

4. Enter the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow wsl --import <DistributionName> <InstallLocation> <Full path to .tar FileName>

*note Substitute <DistributionName> in the command above with the actual WSL distro name (ex: "Debian-Custom") you want to use for this imported WSL distro. This name must be different than any already installed WSL distros listed in step 3.

Substitute <InstallLocation> in the command above with the full path of the folder (ex: "C:\Data\Debian-Custom") to where you want to install the imported WSL distro.

Substitute <Full path to .tar FileName> in the command above with the full path of the .tar file (ex: "%UserProfile%\Desktop\Debian.tar") from Option One for the WSL distro you want to import.

For example: wsl --import Debian-Custom C:\Data\Debian-Custom %UserProfile%\Desktop\Debian.tar

5. When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.

6. Whenever you would like to run the imported WSL distro, type the command below into a PowerShell. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow wsl --distribution <DistributionName>

*note Substitute <DistributionName> in the command above with the actual WSL distro name (ex: "Debian-Custom") you want to run. The wsl --list --all command will give you a list of names for all installed WSL distros for the current account.

OPTION THREE [/i] Uninstall Imported Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10
1. Open a command prompt.

2. Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. This will give you a list of all currently installed WSL distros for the current user. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow wsl --list --all

3. Enter the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow wsl --unregister <DistributionName>

*note Substitute <DistributionName> in the command above with the actual WSL distro name (ex: "Debian-Custom") from step 2 you want to uninstall (unregister).

For example: wsl --unregister Debian-Custom

4. When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.

That's it,
Shawn

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How to Access Linux Files in a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro from Windows 10

:)

johngalt · Oct 27, 2019

Export Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10

Actually, I just found this:

Build a Custom Linux Distro for WSL | Microsoft Docs

Time to play a bit.

Devlin Sco · Oct 27, 2019

Windows Subsystem Linux

Hello,

We would like to know more about the issue you're experiencing with using
Windows Subsystem for Linux. Kindly answer the following questions:

Are you developing a program, an app, or a software for Linux?

Is your Window 10 PC connected to a domain?

Are you managing a Windows Server PC?

What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?

Can you tell us the Version and OS build of your Windows 10 device? You can find this information by clicking the
Start button, type About your PC, and then press
Enter.

We need the following information in order to determine if we need to refer your concern to the
TechNet forums or the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) forums.

For now, we suggest reviewing these support articles to find out if there's an issue with the installation of
Windows Subsystem for Linux:

Install the Windows Subsystem for Linux

Troubleshooting Windows Subsystem for Linux

We'll be waiting for your response.

Brink · Oct 27, 2019

What is new for Windows Subsystem for Linux in Windows 10 version 1903

The next Windows update is coming soon and we’re bringing exciting new updates to WSL with it! These include accessing the Linux file system from Windows, and improvements to how you manage and configure your distros in the command line.

Accessing Linux files from Windows

In the past, creating and changing Linux files from Windows resulted in losing files or corrupting data. Making this possible has been a highly requested and long anticipated feature. We’re proud to announce you can now easily access all the files in your Linux distros from Windows.

Linux Files inside of File Explorer

*Arrow How to Access Linux Files in a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro from Windows 10

The best way to get started with this feature is to open your Linux files in File Explorer! To do this, open your favorite distro, make sure your current folder is your Linux home directory, and type in:

explorer.exe .

This will open a File Explorer window, located inside of your Linux distro.

From here you can access whatever Linux files you would like, just like you would any other file through File explorer. This includes operations such as: dragging files back and forth to other locations, copy and paste, and even interesting scenarios like using the context menu to open VSCode in a WSL directory!

Improvements coming soon to the File Explorer experience

When using this feature you’ll notice the distro files are exposed through the path: \\wsl$\<running_distro_name>\. This is due to the way Windows accesses the files inside of each distro (which you can learn the details of in the following section!) The WSL team is actively investigating ways to improve the discoverability of your Linux files inside of File Explorer.

In command line

WSL is primarily a command line tool, and so of course this feature also works in the command line. You can find your distro’s files by accessing \\wsl$\{distro name}\ where {distro name} is the name of a running distro. Here’s what it looks like to access Debian with PowerShell.

How it works

To put it briefly: a 9P protocol file server facilitates file related requests, with Windows acting as the client.

We’ve modified the WSL init daemon to include a 9P server. This server contains protocols that support Linux metadata, including permissions. There is a Windows service and driver that acts as the client and talks to the 9P server (which is running inside of a WSL instance). Client and server communicate over AF_UNIX sockets, since WSL allows interop between a Windows application and a Linux application using AF_UNIX as described in this post.

Known issues

This is a new feature, and some pieces of it may not work perfectly. Here are some known issues that we want to make you aware of when using this feature:

As of right now, the distros files will only be accessible from Windows when the distro is running (We aim to add support for non-running distros in a future update)
Since the 9P file server runs inside of each distro, it is only accessible when that distro is running. The team is looking into ways to help resolve this.

Accessing Linux files is treated the same as accessing a network resource, and any rules for accessing network resources will still apply
e.g: When using CMD, cd \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home will not work (as CMD does not support UNC paths as current directories), however copy \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\somefile.txt C:\dev\ will work

The old rules still apply, you should NOT access your Linux files inside of the AppData folder!
If you try to access your Linux files through your AppData folder, you are bypassing using the 9P server, which means that you will not have access to your Linux files, and you could possibly corrupt your Linux distro.

Where to file feedback

Our team is incredibly invested in hearing your feedback, in fact this whole feature was created based on our great community feedback! Please file any issues you that you may find on our Github page: microsoft/WSL and we will do our best to address them.

We can’t thank the community enough for helping make WSL an amazing tool!

Improved wsl.exe command line experience

We’ve also improved the command line experience in this latest update by consolidating our commands to wsl.exe and adding more command line functionality. You can now use wsl.exe to perform all the necessary commands you would need to configure and control WSL on your machine. You can always check all the commands you can run from wsl.exe by running wsl.exe --help

New commands

We’ve also added some new commands that will give you more functionality when using wsl.exe.

You can now run commands as different users, terminate running distributions, and even export and import different distros! Exporting a distro is accomplished by passing in --export as an argument and will output a tar file of your current distro. For example, you could use this functionality to share your distro setup with other people. Additionally, if you pass in --import as an argument you can import a tar file that contains the root file system of a Linux distro, which allows you to import any distro you’d like, with any configuration you’d like.

*Arrow How to Export and Import Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10

Here is the full list of commands that we’ve added to wsl.exe.

Newly added commands

--user, -u <UserName>
Run as the specified user

--export <DistributionName> <FileName>
Exports the distribution to a tar file.
The filename can be – for standard output.

--import <DistributionName> <InstallLocation> <FileName>
Imports the specified tar file as a new distribution.
The filename can be – for standard input.

--terminate, -t <DistributionName>
Terminates the distribution.

Consolidated commands

The commands that existed inside of wslconfig.exe have been added to wsl.exe to allow you to configure your distros more easily. Our goal is to consolidate how you interact with WSL to a single binary.

*Arrow How to List All Available Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distros in Windows 10

Commands Added to wsl.exe from wslconfig.exe

--list , -l
Lists all distributions available on your machine
Can also contain further options:

--all
Lists all distributions, including distributions that are currently being installed or uninstalled

–running
Lists only distributions that are currently running

--setdefault, -s <DistributionName>
Sets the distribution as default.

--unregister <DistributionName>
Unregisters the distribution

--upgrade <DistributionName>
Upgrades the distribution to the WslFs file system format.

Console improvements

The Windows Console team has also made some improvements that you’ll notice when using WSL. The Console team will post an update of what’s new in Windows 10, version 1903 very soon. Stay tuned!

Thanks and feedback

As always, we want to thank you for providing your feedback and encourage you to keep doing so! You can file issues on our Github at Microsoft/WSL or reach out to a team member on Twitter.

Here are our WSL team members who are on Twitter:

Taylor Brown @Taylorb_msft
Sarah Cooley @VirtualScooley
Yosef Durr @yosefdurr
Sven Groot @svengroot_ms
Ben Hillis @benhillis
Craig Loewen @craigaloewen
Sunil Muthuswamy @SunilMut
Brian Perkins
Palkesh Soni @sonipalkesh
John Starks @gigastarks
Craig Wilhite @CraigWilhite

We’re looking forwards to seeing the fantastic work that you’ll do with this update.

Sincerely,
The WSL Team
Click to expand...

Source: What Windows Command Line Tools For Developers

Tip How to Enable or Disable Windows Subsystem for Linux (Bash on Ubuntu) in Windows 10

How to Export and Import Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10

Brink · Oct 27, 2019

What is new for Windows Subsystem for Linux in Windows 10 version 1903

The next Windows update is coming soon and we’re bringing exciting new updates to WSL with it! These include accessing the Linux file system from Windows, and improvements to how you manage and configure your distros in the command line.

Accessing Linux files from Windows

In the past, creating and changing Linux files from Windows resulted in losing files or corrupting data. Making this possible has been a highly requested and long anticipated feature. We’re proud to announce you can now easily access all the files in your Linux distros from Windows.

Linux Files inside of File Explorer

*Arrow How to Access Linux Files in a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro from Windows 10

The best way to get started with this feature is to open your Linux files in File Explorer! To do this, open your favorite distro, make sure your current folder is your Linux home directory, and type in:

explorer.exe .

This will open a File Explorer window, located inside of your Linux distro.

From here you can access whatever Linux files you would like, just like you would any other file through File explorer. This includes operations such as: dragging files back and forth to other locations, copy and paste, and even interesting scenarios like using the context menu to open VSCode in a WSL directory!

Improvements coming soon to the File Explorer experience

When using this feature you’ll notice the distro files are exposed through the path: \\wsl$\<running_distro_name>\. This is due to the way Windows accesses the files inside of each distro (which you can learn the details of in the following section!) The WSL team is actively investigating ways to improve the discoverability of your Linux files inside of File Explorer.

In command line

WSL is primarily a command line tool, and so of course this feature also works in the command line. You can find your distro’s files by accessing \\wsl$\{distro name}\ where {distro name} is the name of a running distro. Here’s what it looks like to access Debian with PowerShell.

How it works

To put it briefly: a 9P protocol file server facilitates file related requests, with Windows acting as the client.

We’ve modified the WSL init daemon to include a 9P server. This server contains protocols that support Linux metadata, including permissions. There is a Windows service and driver that acts as the client and talks to the 9P server (which is running inside of a WSL instance). Client and server communicate over AF_UNIX sockets, since WSL allows interop between a Windows application and a Linux application using AF_UNIX as described in this post.

Known issues

This is a new feature, and some pieces of it may not work perfectly. Here are some known issues that we want to make you aware of when using this feature:

As of right now, the distros files will only be accessible from Windows when the distro is running (We aim to add support for non-running distros in a future update)
Since the 9P file server runs inside of each distro, it is only accessible when that distro is running. The team is looking into ways to help resolve this.

Accessing Linux files is treated the same as accessing a network resource, and any rules for accessing network resources will still apply
e.g: When using CMD, cd \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home will not work (as CMD does not support UNC paths as current directories), however copy \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\somefile.txt C:\dev\ will work

The old rules still apply, you should NOT access your Linux files inside of the AppData folder!
If you try to access your Linux files through your AppData folder, you are bypassing using the 9P server, which means that you will not have access to your Linux files, and you could possibly corrupt your Linux distro.

Where to file feedback

Our team is incredibly invested in hearing your feedback, in fact this whole feature was created based on our great community feedback! Please file any issues you that you may find on our Github page: microsoft/WSL and we will do our best to address them.

We can’t thank the community enough for helping make WSL an amazing tool!

Improved wsl.exe command line experience

We’ve also improved the command line experience in this latest update by consolidating our commands to wsl.exe and adding more command line functionality. You can now use wsl.exe to perform all the necessary commands you would need to configure and control WSL on your machine. You can always check all the commands you can run from wsl.exe by running wsl.exe --help

New commands

We’ve also added some new commands that will give you more functionality when using wsl.exe.

You can now run commands as different users, terminate running distributions, and even export and import different distros! Exporting a distro is accomplished by passing in --export as an argument and will output a tar file of your current distro. For example, you could use this functionality to share your distro setup with other people. Additionally, if you pass in --import as an argument you can import a tar file that contains the root file system of a Linux distro, which allows you to import any distro you’d like, with any configuration you’d like.

*Arrow How to Export and Import Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10

Here is the full list of commands that we’ve added to wsl.exe.

Newly added commands

--user, -u <UserName>
Run as the specified user

--export <DistributionName> <FileName>
Exports the distribution to a tar file.
The filename can be – for standard output.

--import <DistributionName> <InstallLocation> <FileName>
Imports the specified tar file as a new distribution.
The filename can be – for standard input.

--terminate, -t <DistributionName>
Terminates the distribution.

Consolidated commands

The commands that existed inside of wslconfig.exe have been added to wsl.exe to allow you to configure your distros more easily. Our goal is to consolidate how you interact with WSL to a single binary.

*Arrow How to List All Available Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distros in Windows 10

Commands Added to wsl.exe from wslconfig.exe

--list , -l
Lists all distributions available on your machine
Can also contain further options:

--all
Lists all distributions, including distributions that are currently being installed or uninstalled

–running
Lists only distributions that are currently running

--setdefault, -s <DistributionName>
Sets the distribution as default.

--unregister <DistributionName>
Unregisters the distribution

--upgrade <DistributionName>
Upgrades the distribution to the WslFs file system format.

Console improvements

The Windows Console team has also made some improvements that you’ll notice when using WSL. The Console team will post an update of what’s new in Windows 10, version 1903 very soon. Stay tuned!

Thanks and feedback

As always, we want to thank you for providing your feedback and encourage you to keep doing so! You can file issues on our Github at Microsoft/WSL or reach out to a team member on Twitter.

Here are our WSL team members who are on Twitter:

Taylor Brown @Taylorb_msft
Sarah Cooley @VirtualScooley
Yosef Durr @yosefdurr
Sven Groot @svengroot_ms
Ben Hillis @benhillis
Craig Loewen @craigaloewen
Sunil Muthuswamy @SunilMut
Brian Perkins
Palkesh Soni @sonipalkesh
John Starks @gigastarks
Craig Wilhite @CraigWilhite

We’re looking forwards to seeing the fantastic work that you’ll do with this update.

Sincerely,
The WSL Team
Click to expand...

Source: What Windows Command Line Tools For Developers

Tip How to Enable or Disable Windows Subsystem for Linux (Bash on Ubuntu) in Windows 10

How to Export and Import Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro in Windows 10

Brink · Oct 27, 2019

Sideloading Custom Linux Distro to Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux

We are happy to announce that we have open sourced a WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) sample for Linux distribution maintainers. This sample allows distro maintainers to build WSL distro packages for the Microsoft Store and developers to create custom Linux distro packages for sideloading. You can find the distro launcher repo on GitHub.

This project enables:

Linux distribution maintainers to package and submit a Linux distribution as an appx that runs on WSL

Developers to create custom Linux distributions that can be sideloaded onto their dev machine

We know that many Linux distros rely entirely on open source software, so we would like to bring WSL closer to the OSS community. We hope open sourcing this project will help increase community engagement and bring more of your favorite distros to the Microsoft Store.

First, a little background on how we distribute Linux distros for WSL. We distribute Linux distros for WSL as UWP applications through the Microsoft Store. You can install those applications that will then run on WSL - the subsystem that sits in the Windows kernel. This delivery mechanism has many benefits as discussed in an earlier blog post.

Sideloading a Custom Linux Distro Package

You can create a custom Linux distro package as an application to sideload on your personal machine. Please note that your custom package would not be distributed through the Microsoft Store unless you submit as a distribution maintainer.

To set up your machine to sideload apps, you will need to enable this in the system settings under “For Developers”. Be sure to either have developer mode, or sideload apps selected.

For Linux Distro Maintainers

To submit to the Store, you will need to work with us to receive publishing approval. If you are a Linux distribution owner interested in adding your distribution to the Microsoft Store, please contact L: [email protected].

Thanks & Feedback

A big thanks to our Linux partners for helping provide feedback on the sample. Please visit the Distro Launcher repo to start creating distro packages for WSL. We hope you can use this sample to create custom Linux distros for more of your WSL needs!

Be sure to let us know how you use the Distro Launcher for WSL by submitting issues on our sample GitHub repo and Tweeting us at #WSL - @tara_msft and @benhillis.
Click to expand...

Source: Open Sourcing a WSL Sample for Linux Distribution Maintainers and Sideloading Custom Linux Distributions Windows Command Line Tools For Developers

Windows 10: Export and Import Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL Distro in Windows 10

Export and Import Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL Distro in Windows 10

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