How do you install multiple, separate instances of Ubuntu in WSL?

windows-subsystem-for-linux
MattSlay picture MattSlay · Jul 29, 2018 · Viewed 34.4k times · Source

In Windows 10, how do you install multiple, separate instances of Ubuntu in WSL? I'd like separate instances for different work spaces. For instance one for Python development, one for Ruby development, one for .Net Core development, etc. I know I could jam all of these into the same Ubuntu on WSL instance, but I'd rather have a separate one for each of these scenarios. Is this possible?

Answer

M. Warren picture M. Warren · Feb 27, 2020

The newer wsl command's import/export feature can readily create copies of a distro without installing any additional tools or using RegEdit. For example

cd C:\Users\MattSlay
wsl --export Ubuntu ubuntu.tar
wsl --import UbuntuRuby .\UbuntuRuby ubuntu.tar
wsl --import UbuntuPython .\UbuntuPython ubuntu.tar
wsl --import UbuntuDotNet .\UbuntuDotNet ubuntu.tar
wsl -d UbuntuRuby

wsl -d <distro> launches the distro. If WSL 2 has been installed, then the distro can be converted between versions during --import using the --version option:

wsl --import UbuntuRuby .\UbuntuRuby ubuntu.tar --version 2

A smaller distro, such as Alpine, can make experimentation much faster. Finally, wsl --import can read from standard input - and wsl --export can write to standard output -. This allows a compression program to be used to save disk space if desired.

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