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@karthiks
Last active April 11, 2024 07:39
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WSL 2 CLI Cheat-sheet To Be Run In Powershell
# To list installed distributions
wsl -l
wsl --list
# To list installed distributions along with its running status and wsl config being 1 or 2
wsl -l --verbose
wsl -l -v
# To run a specific distro
wsl -d distro_name
wsl --distribution distro_name
# To terminate/shutdown a specific distro
wsl -t distro_name_to_shutdown
wsl --terminate distro_name_to_shutdown
# To shutdown all disstros
wsl --shutdown
# Set specific distro as default
wsl -s my_default_distro
wsl --set-default my_default_distro
# To EXPORT a running distro as image
wsl --export distro_name_to_export windows_path\tar_file_name.tar
# To IMPORT an image as distro
wsl --import new_distro_name install_location_windows_path tar_file_name.tar --version wsl-version-1-or-2
wsl --import Ubuntu-20 D:\VMs\WSL\Ubuntu-20\ Ubuntu-20.04.tar --version 2 # Setting my secondary HDD as storate loc for new distro
# To UNREGISTER (also removes the its file storage) a distro
wsl --unregister distro_name_that_delete
# To run a WSL distro as the specified user.
wsl -u username -d distroname
wsl -u root -d Ubuntu-20.04
# To change the default user for a distribution
distributionName config --default-user Username
ubuntu config --default-user my_default_username
ubuntu2004.exe config --default-user johndoe # When you have Ubuntu 20.04 version installed from the Microsoft Store
@Dwerg01
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Dwerg01 commented Jun 5, 2022

Awesome, thank you. 👍🏼
Got all I needed to create a import/export backup

@iamahmudul
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This is great. Thanks a lot.

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