Windows Subsystem for Linux

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) runs Linux distributions on Windows. Under WSL 2, every installed distribution runs on one Linux kernel inside a lightweight utility virtual machine, which wsl --shutdown stops along with every running distribution. Each distribution has its own file system, reached from Windows at \\wsl.localhost\<distribution>\, while the Windows drives appear inside Linux under /mnt/, so C:\ is /mnt/c.

Git on WSL Ubuntu 26.04 installs a distribution from scratch and sets it up for Git and GitHub.

External references#

• Microsoft, What is the Windows Subsystem for Linux?
• Microsoft, Install WSL and basic commands
• Microsoft, Working across Windows and Linux file systems
• microsoft/WSL on GitHub, for releases and issues
• Wikipedia, Windows Subsystem for Linux