Hacker Man Tutorials

Windows Subsystem Linux

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Is really underrated. I love Linux, but I love video games too much and have only the slightest intention of ever going back. If I had two computers,, maybe a Linux laptop and a Windows desktop. That is not in my cards right now, so we gotta make do, and it ain’t so bad.

What is Windows Subsystem Linux

It is complicated. I will link technical details somewhere because I can not explain it. It acts like a virtual machine of a Linux distro you choose, so you can use their command line. Wow! You say, that sounds pretty great! It is, and it get’s better. Here is my setup

Super Helpful

Hyper

First I install Hyper for windows, another prettier terminal, you can open it, go to preferences and add plugins. You can also tell it to open any shell you want instead of say Windows Bash. A very basic config like this works nicely, and does not look too bad.

// Future versions of Hyper may add additional config options,
// which will not automatically be merged into this file.
// See https://hyper.is#cfg for all currently supported options.

module.exports = {
  config: {
    // choose either `'stable'` for receiving highly polished,
    // or `'canary'` for less polished but more frequent updates
    updateChannel: 'stable',

    // default font size in pixels for all tabs
    fontSize: 12,

    // font family with optional fallbacks
    fontFamily: 'Menlo, "DejaVu Sans Mono", Consolas, "Lucida Console", monospace',

    // default font weight: 'normal' or 'bold'
    fontWeight: 'normal',

    // font weight for bold characters: 'normal' or 'bold'
    fontWeightBold: 'bold',

    // line height as a relative unit
    lineHeight: 1,

    // letter spacing as a relative unit
    letterSpacing: 0,

    // terminal cursor background color and opacity (hex, rgb, hsl, hsv, hwb or cmyk)
    cursorColor: 'rgba(248,28,229,0.8)',

    // terminal text color under BLOCK cursor
    cursorAccentColor: '#000',

    // `'BEAM'` for |, `'UNDERLINE'` for _, `'BLOCK'` for █
    cursorShape: 'BLOCK',

    // set to `true` (without backticks and without quotes) for blinking cursor
    cursorBlink: false,

    // color of the text
    foregroundColor: '#fff',

    // terminal background color
    // opacity is only supported on macOS
    backgroundColor: '#000',

    // terminal selection color
    selectionColor: 'rgba(248,28,229,0.3)',

    // border color (window, tabs)
    borderColor: '#333',

    // custom CSS to embed in the main window
    css: '',

    // custom CSS to embed in the terminal window
    termCSS: '',

    // if you're using a Linux setup which show native menus, set to false
    // default: `true` on Linux, `true` on Windows, ignored on macOS
    showHamburgerMenu: '',

    // set to `false` (without backticks and without quotes) if you want to hide the minimize, maximize and close buttons
    // additionally, set to `'left'` if you want them on the left, like in Ubuntu
    // default: `true` (without backticks and without quotes) on Windows and Linux, ignored on macOS
    showWindowControls: 'true',

    // custom padding (CSS format, i.e.: `top right bottom left`)
    padding: '12px 14px',

    // the full list. if you're going to provide the full color palette,
    // including the 6 x 6 color cubes and the grayscale map, just provide
    // an array here instead of a color map object
    colors: {
      black: '#000000',
      red: '#C51E14',
      green: '#1DC121',
      yellow: '#C7C329',
      blue: '#0A2FC4',
      magenta: '#C839C5',
      cyan: '#20C5C6',
      white: '#C7C7C7',
      lightBlack: '#686868',
      lightRed: '#FD6F6B',
      lightGreen: '#67F86F',
      lightYellow: '#FFFA72',
      lightBlue: '#6A76FB',
      lightMagenta: '#FD7CFC',
      lightCyan: '#68FDFE',
      lightWhite: '#FFFFFF',
    },

    // the shell to run when spawning a new session (i.e. /usr/local/bin/fish)
    // if left empty, your system's login shell will be used by default
    //
    // Windows
    // - Make sure to use a full path if the binary name doesn't work
    // - Remove `--login` in shellArgs
    //
    // Bash on Windows
    // - Example: `C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe`
    //
    // PowerShell on Windows
    // - Example: `C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe`
    shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe',

    // for setting shell arguments (i.e. for using interactive shellArgs: `['-i']`)
    // by default `[`C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\wsl.exe]` will be used
    shellArgs: ['--login'],

    // for environment variables
    env: {},

    // set to `false` for no bell
    bell: 'SOUND',

    // if `true` (without backticks and without quotes), selected text will automatically be copied to the clipboard
    copyOnSelect: false,

    // if `true` (without backticks and without quotes), hyper will be set as the default protocol client for SSH
    defaultSSHApp: true,

    // if `true` (without backticks and without quotes), on right click selected text will be copied or pasted if no
    // selection is present (`true` by default on Windows and disables the context menu feature)
    quickEdit: false,

    // choose either `'vertical'`, if you want the column mode when Option key is hold during selection (Default)
    // or `'force'`, if you want to force selection regardless of whether the terminal is in mouse events mode
    // (inside tmux or vim with mouse mode enabled for example).
    macOptionSelectionMode: 'vertical',

    // URL to custom bell
    // bellSoundURL: 'http://example.com/bell.mp3',

    // Whether to use the WebGL renderer. Set it to false to use canvas-based
    // rendering (slower, but supports transparent backgrounds)
    webGLRenderer: true,

    // for advanced config flags please refer to https://hyper.is/#cfg
  },

  // a list of plugins to fetch and install from npm
  // format: [@org/]project[#version]
  // examples:
  //   `hyperpower`
  //   `@company/project`
  //   `project#1.0.1`
  plugins: [
    "hyper-snazzy",
    "hyper-systray",
    "hyper-opacity",
    "hyper-tab-icons",
    "hyperborder"],

  // in development, you can create a directory under
  // `~/.hyper_plugins/local/` and include it here
  // to load it and avoid it being `npm install`ed
  localPlugins: [],

  keymaps: {
    // Example
    // 'window:devtools': 'cmd+alt+o',
  },
};

Okay, looking at that, it looks like I made a mistake, I would think my shell was

'C:\WINDOWS\System32\wsl.exe'

but this is working for me, so if it does not work for you, try the wsl.exe since that makes more sense to me…

So Now You Have A Sweet Terminal For Windows Subsystem Linux, What Next?

My pretty Terminal
You can’t really see opacity, but it’s there.

Install some tools like httpie, awk, zsh, whatever you normally like on your Linux terminal. Pop on Miley Cyrus, cause you are getting the best of both words. Yoast says there is not enough works, but I have given you so much! What am I going to do next, Guttenberg block building? Wp-Rig? Who knows, stay tune as it turns out to be more Land Before Time.


Comments

2 responses to “Windows Subsystem Linux”

  1. Jamison

    Well fuck, Now I need to test comments

  2. Jamison

    No Jamison they work fine, you just got paranoid with that backlink notice..