Manage instances¶
Get instances by size¶
PS> Get-WslInstance | Sort-Object -Property Length -Descending | Format-Table Name, @{Label="Size (MB)"; Expression={ $_.Length/1Mb }}, @{Label="File"; Expression={$_.BlockFile.FullName}}
Name Size (MB) File
---- --------- ----
Ubuntu-20.04 87349 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu20.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState\ext4.vhdx
Arch 33099 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\scoop\persist\archwsl\data\ext4.vhdx
godev 32799 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\Documents\src\godev\ext4.vhdx
cm 19518 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\cm\ext4.vhdx
citest 5983 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\citest\ext4.vhdx
rancher-desktop-data 2409 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\rancher-desktop\distro-data\ext4.vhdx
kaweezle 2078 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\kaweezle\kaweezle\ext4.vhdx
jekyll 932 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\jekyll\ext4.vhdx
deb 716 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\deb\ext4.vhdx
rancher-desktop 569 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\rancher-desktop\distro\ext4.vhdx
Get running instances¶
❯ Get-WslInstance -State Running
Name State Version Default
---- ----- ------- -------
jekyll Running 2 False
deb Running 2 False
godev Running 2 False
Stop all running instances¶
Warning
If a instance is currently used in Visual Studio Code, you will be disconnected.
PS> # Also works with Stop-WslInstance *
PS> Get-WslInstance -State Running | Stop-WslInstance
Name State Version Default
---- ----- ------- -------
jekyll Stopped 2 False
deb Stopped 2 False
godev Stopped 2 False
PS>
Remove instances¶
To remove a single instance, simply type:
You can use a wildcard to remove multiple instances at the same time:
PS> Get-WslInstance alpine*
Name State Version Default
---- ----- ------- -------
alpine1 Stopped 2 False
alpine2 Stopped 2 False
# or Get-WslInstance alpine* | Remove-WslInstance
PS> Remove-WslInstance alpine*
PS>
Rename instance¶
It may be handy to rename a instance:
PS> Rename-Wsl jekyll2 jekyll
🎉 instance renamed to jekyll
Name State Version Default
---- ----- ------- -------
jekyll Running 2 False
PS>
Export instance¶
An existing WSL instance can be exported for reuse with the Export-WslInstance
cmdlet:
PS> Export-Wsl jekyll
⌛ Exporting WSL instance jekyll to C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\jekyll.rootfs.tar...
⌛ Compressing C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\jekyll.rootfs.tar to C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\jekyll.rootfs.tar.gz...
🎉 Instance jekyll saved to C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\jekyll.rootfs.tar.gz.
Name Type Os Release Configured State FileName
---- ---- -- ------- ---------- ----- --------
jekyll Local alpine 3.22.1 True Synced jekyll.rootfs.tar.gz
PS>
The saved image can be reused to create a new WSL instance:
PS> New-WslInstance jekyll2 -From jekyll
⌛ Creating directory [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\jekyll2]...
⌛ Fetching Builtins images from: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/antoinemartin/PowerShell-Wsl-Manager/refs/heads/rootfs/builtins.rootfs.json
⌛ Creating instance [jekyll2] from [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\jekyll.rootfs.tar.gz]...
🎉 Done. Command to enter instance: Invoke-WslInstance -In jekyll2 or wsl -d jekyll2
Name State Version Default
---- ----- ------- -------
jekyll2 Stopped 2 False
PS>
Change default user¶
By default unconfigured instances use the root user (UID 0). The user of
configured instances is named after the OS name: debian for Debian, ubuntu
for Ubuntu, etc with the Uid 1000.
To change the default user for a instance, use the Set-WslDefaultUid cmdlet:
PS> Invoke-WslInstance -In jekyll -User root adduser '-s' /bin/zsh '-g' jekyll '-D' '-u' 1001 jekyll
PS> Set-WslDefaultUid -Name jekyll -Uid 1001 | iwsl
...(p10k configuration)...
New config: ~/.p10k.zsh.
Backup of ~/.zshrc: /tmp/.zshrc.XXXXEclcog.
See ~/.zshrc changes:
diff /tmp/.zshrc.XXXXEclcog ~/.zshrc
File feature requests and bug reports at https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k/issues
❯ id
uid=1001(jekyll) gid=1001(jekyll) groups=1001(jekyll)
/mnt/c/Users/AntoineMartin 19:51:26
❯
On some occasions, you may want to revert the default user to the root user (UID 0) in order to launch services (docker) for instance.
You can do that by running the following command: