WSL Management for PowerShell

WSL Management for PowerShell is a PowerShell module that allows you to manage the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), and its distributions. It provides PowerShell-friendly ways to retrieve information about distributions, change their settings, import and export them, terminate them, and remove them.

This module wraps the various functions of wsl.exe in PowerShell cmdlets, making it easier to script each operation. In addition, it provides tab completion of distribution names for all the commands.

This module has been tested using the inbox WSL version of Windows 10 21h2 (the oldest version still in mainstream support as of this writing), and using the most recent version of WSL from the Microsoft Store (version 1.2.5 as of this writing). If you find any problems with other versions (especially newer store versions), please file an issue.

This module supports both Windows PowerShell and cross-platform PowerShell. It can also be run on PowerShell on Linux inside WSL itself, although not all features are available in this mode.

Why use this module?

This module offers the following advantages over plain wsl.exe:

• Provides information in PowerShell objects to make it easier to access, filter, and script.
• Provides additional distribution information such as the the installation folder and VHD location.
• Tab completion and wildcard support for distribution names.
• Easily perform operations on multiple distributions (e.g. stop or export/import multiple distributions with a single command, or run a Linux command on multiple distributions).

Installing the module

The WSL PowerShell module is available on PowerShell Gallery, and can be installed with the Install-Module command:

Install-Module Wsl

You can also download the the project from a GitHub release, and copy the files to a folder named Wsl somewhere in your $env:PSModulePath.

Provided commands

Below, all the commands provided by the module are briefly explained. For more detailed information, including all parameters and additional examples, follow links for each command or use Get-Help in PowerShell.

Get-WslDistribution

The Get-WslDistribution cmdlet gets information about WSL distributions installed for the current user.

This cmdlet wraps the functionality of wsl.exe --list --verbose.

Without parameters, it returns all installed distributions.

Get-WslDistribution

Which could provide the following output, for example:

Name           State Version Default
----           ----- ------- -------
Ubuntu       Stopped       2    True
Ubuntu-22.04 Running       1   False
Alpine       Running       2   False
Debian       Stopped       1   False

You can also filter the output using the parameters, by name, version, or state.

The name supports wildcards; for example, you can retrieve all distributions whose name starts with "Ubuntu".

Get-WslDistribution "Ubuntu*"

Note: all cmdlets in this module support wildcards and tab completion on the distribution name.

To return all running distributions:

Get-WslDistribution -State Running

To return all WSL2 distributions.

Get-WslDistribution -Version 2

You can also get only the default distribution.

Get-WslDistribution -Default

The returned object's type is a custom WslDistribution class defined by the module. It has the following properties:

Property	Type	Value
Name	System.String	The distribution name.
State	WslDistributionState	An enumeration that indicates the current state of the distribution (Stopped, Running, Installing, Uninstalling, or Converting).
Version	System.Int32	Indicates whether this distribution uses WSL1 or WSL2.
Default	System.Boolean	Indicates whether this is the default distribution.
Guid	System.Guid	The identifier for the distribution used in the registry and by WSL internally.
BasePath	System.String	The full path to the install location of the distribution.
VhdPath	System.String	The full path to the distribution's VHD file. This is only set for WSL2 distributions.
FileSystemPath	System.String	The UNC path to use to access the distribution's file system, in the form \\wsl.localhost\<distro>.

Set-WslDistribution

The Set-WslDistribution cmdlet changes the settings of a WSL distribution. You can set a distribution as default, or convert it between WSL1 and WSL2.

This cmdlet wraps the functionality of wsl.exe --set-default and wsl.exe --set-version.

For example, to set Debian as the default:

Set-WslDistribution "Debian" -Default

To convert all WSL1 distributions to WSL2

Get-WslDistribution -Version 1 | Set-WslDistribution -Version 2

Stop-WslDistribution

The Stop-WslDistribution cmdlet terminates a WSL distribution.

This cmdlet wraps the functionality of wsl.exe --terminate.

For example, to stop all distributions whose name starts with Ubuntu:

Stop-WslDistribution "Ubuntu*"

To stop all running distributions (this avoids showing a warning for non-running distributions):

Get-WslDistribution -State Running | Stop-WslDistribution

Remove-WslDistribution

The Remove-WslDistribution cmdlet unregisters a WSL distribution.

This cmdlet wraps the functionality of wsl.exe --unregister.

⚠️ This cmdlet will permanently remove a distribution and all the data stored in its file system without prompting for confirmation, unless you use -Confirm. You can use the -WhatIf parameter to test a command without actually removing anything.

For example, to remove the distribution named "Ubuntu":

Remove-WslDistribution "Ubuntu"

To remove all WSL1 distributions:

Get-WslDistribution -Version 1 | Remove-WslDistribution

Export-WslDistribution

The Export-WslDistribution cmdlet Exports a WSL distribution to a gzipped tarball (.tar.gz) or VHD (.vhdx) file.

You can export multiple distributions in a single command by specifying an existing directory as the destination. In this case, this cmdlet will automatically create files using the distribution name with the extension .tar.gz or .vhdx.

This cmdlet wraps the functionality of wsl.exe --export.

For example, to export all WS1 distributions to a directory (the directory D:\backup has to exist before running the command):

Get-WslDistribution -Version 1 | Export-WslDistribution -Destination D:\backup

WSL2 distributions can also be exported in VHD format.

Get-WslDistribution -Version 2 | Export-WslDistribution -Destination D:\backup -Format "Vhd"

Import-WslDistribution

The Import-WslDistribution cmdlet imports a WSL distribution from a gzipped tarball (.tar.gz) or VHD (.vhdx) file.

By default, this cmdlet derives the distribution name from the input file name, and appends that name to the destination path. This allows you to import multiple distributions using a single command.

This cmdlet wraps the functionality of wsl.exe --import.

For example, to import all .tar.gz files from a directory, storing them in subdirectories under D:\wsl:

Import-WslDistribution D:\backup\*.tar.gz D:\wsl

When importing VHD files, you can choose to copy them to a destination, or you can register them in place:

Import-WslDistribution D:\backup\*.vhdx -InPlace

Invoke-WslCommand

The Invoke-WslCommand cmdlet runs a command in a WSL distribution, returning the output as strings.

This cmdlet will throw an exception if executing wsl.exe failed (e.g. there is no distribution with the specified name) or if the command returned a non-zero exit code.

This cmdlet wraps the functionality of wsl.exe <command>.

You can use the cmdlet's parameters to specify the distribution name, Linux user, working directory, and shell type.

For example, run a command in all WSL2 distributions as the Linux "root" user:

Get-WslDistribution -Version 2 | Invoke-WslCommand 'echo $(whoami) in $WSL_DISTRO_NAME' -User root

Instead of providing a single quoted command, you can also use the -RawCommand parameter to specify the command without quoting it, similar to how wsl.exe itself works:

Get-WslDistribution -Version 2 | Invoke-WslCommand -RawCommand -User root -- echo $`(whoami`) in `$WSL_DISTRO_NAME

Using -- is not required, but it ensures that nothing after it is interpreted as a parameter to the cmdlet itself.

Enter-WslDistribution

The Enter-WslDistribution cmdlet starts an interactive session in a WSL distribution.

This cmdlet will raise an error if executing wsl.exe failed (e.g. there is no distribution with the specified name) or if the session exited with a non-zero exit code.

This cmdlet wraps the functionality of wsl.exe without specifying a command.

The main advantage of using this cmdlet over plain wsl.exe is the availability of tab completion on the distribution name, or the ability to pipe in a WslDistribution retrieved from another command.

For example, to enter the Ubuntu distribution as the user root:

Enter-WslDistribution Ubuntu root

To import a distribution and immediately start a session in it:

Import-WslDistribution D:\backup\Alpine.tar.gz D:\wsl | Enter-WslDistribution

Get-WslVersion

The Get-WslVersion cmdlet provides version information about the Windows Subsystem for Linux and its components. It also indicates whether WSL1 or WSL2 is the default.

For example:

Get-WslVersion

Which outputs:

Wsl                  : 1.2.5.0
Kernel               : 5.15.90.1
WslG                 : 1.0.51
Msrdc                : 1.2.3770
Direct3D             : 1.608.2
DXCore               : 10.0.25131.1002
Windows              : 10.0.22621.2215
DefaultDistroVersion : 2

The output of this command is a WslVersionInfo object, with the properties shown above. All properties use the type System.Version, except for DefaultDistroVersion which is a System.Int32.

If you are using the inbox version of WSL, all properties except for Windows and DefaultDistroVersion will be null.

Get-WslDistributionOnline

The Get-WslDistributionOnline cmdlet gets information about WSL distributions available from online sources.

This cmdlet wraps the functionality of wsl.exe --list --online.

Get-WslDistributionOnline

Which could provide the following output, for example:

Name                                FriendlyName
----                                ------------
Ubuntu                              Ubuntu
Debian                              Debian GNU/Linux
kali-linux                          Kali Linux Rolling
Ubuntu-18.04                        Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu-20.04                        Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu-22.04                        Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
OracleLinux_7_9                     Oracle Linux 7.9
OracleLinux_8_7                     Oracle Linux 8.7
OracleLinux_9_1                     Oracle Linux 9.1
openSUSE-Leap-15.5                  openSUSE Leap 15.5
SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-Server-15-SP4 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4
SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-15-SP5        SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP5
openSUSE-Tumbleweed                 openSUSE Tumbleweed

Stop-Wsl

The Stop-Wsl cmdlet terminates all WSL distributions, and for WSL2 also shuts down the lightweight utility VM.

This cmdlet wraps the functionality of wsl.exe --shutdown.

There is no benefit to using this over wsl.exe --shutdown. It is provided purely for the sake of completionism.

Testing and documentation

This module uses tests written using Pester. To execute the tests, clone the repository and run Invoke-Pester in the repository's root directory.

⚠️ The tests assume that the current user does not have any WSL distributions installed prior to running the tests. If there are pre-existing distributions, you will see a bunch of test failures.

The tests are written so that pre-existing distributions should not be deleted, unless you have distributions whose name starts with "wslps_". However, if you are testing changes, bugs in the module or the tests could cause data loss, so it's strongly recommended to ensure you have no existing distributions before executing the tests.

The tests download a tarball for the Alpine distribution, which is used to create distributions for testing. You can also use a custom tarball by invoking Wsl.Tests.ps1 directly, using the -TestDistroPath parameter.

This module uses PlatyPS to generate an external documentation file. Markdown sources for the documentation are in the docs directory.