Mintty as a terminal for WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).

Overview

WSLtty components

• wsltty package components (see below) in the user’s local application folder %LOCALAPPDATA%
• a wsltty configuration directory in the user’s application folder %APPDATA% (“home”-located configuration files from a previously installed version will be migrated to the new default location)
• Start Menu shortcuts to start WSL terminals
• *.bat scripts to invoke WSL terminals from the command line
• optional context menu entries for Windows Explorer to start WSL terminals in the respective folder
• install/uninstall context menu items from Start Menu subfolder WSLtty

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Installation from this repository

WSLtty installer (Download standalone installation)

Run the installer to install the components listed above. If Windows complains with a “Windows protected your PC” popup, you may need to click “Run anyway” to proceed with the installation. You may need to open the Properties of the installer first, tab “General” section “Security” (if available) and select “Unblock”, to enable the “Run anyway” button.

Installation from source repository

Download or checkout the wsltty repository. Invoke make, then make install. Note this has to be done within a Cygwin environment.

Installation to non-default locations

(For experts) Within the installation process, provide parameters to the script install.bat. The optional first parameter designates the installation target, the optional second parameter designates the configuration directory.

Installation with other package management environments

Chocolatey

If you use the Chocolatey package manager, invoke one of

• choco install wsltty
• choco upgrade wsltty

Scoop

If you use the Scoop package manager,

• scoop bucket add extras

then, invoke one of

• scoop install wsltty
• scoop update wsltty

Windows Appx package

A Windows Appx package and certificate is available in the wsltty.appx repository.

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Invocation

WSLtty can be invoked with

• installed Start Menu shortcuts (or Desktop shortcuts if copied there)
• *.bat scripts (optionally with WSL command as parameters)
• Explorer context menu (if installed from the Start Menu WSLtty subfolder)

Starting the mintty terminal directly from the WSLtty installation location is discouraged because that would bypass essential options.

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Configuration

Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts

In the Start Menu, the following shortcuts are installed:

• For each installed WSL distribution D, D Terminal to start in the WSL user home
• WSL Terminal to start the default WSL distribution (as configured with the Windows tool wslconfig)

In the Start Menu subfolder WSLtty, the following shortcuts are installed:

• For each installed WSL distribution D, D Terminal % to start in the Windows %USERPROFILE% home
• WSL Terminal % to start the default WSL distribution in the Windows %USERPROFILE% home

One Desktop shortcut is installed:

• WSL Terminal to start the default WSL distribution (as configured with the Windows tool wslconfig)

Other, distribution-specific shortcuts can be copied to the desktop from the Start Menu if desired.

Command line scripts wsl*.bat

WSLtty installs the following scripts into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps (and a copy in its application folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\wsltty):

• For each installed WSL distribution D, D.bat to start in the current folder/directory
• For each installed WSL distribution D, D~.bat to start in the WSL user home
• WSL.bat and WSL~.bat to start the default WSL distribution

Given that %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps is in your PATH, the scripts can be invoked from cmd.exe, PowerShell, or via WIN+R.

Context menu entries

WSLtty provides context menu entries for all installed WSL distributions and one for the configured default distribution, to start a respective WSL terminal in a specific folder from an Explorer window. They are not installed by default. To add launch entries for the default or all WSL distributions to the Explorer context menu, or remove them, run the respective script from the Start Menu subfolder WSLtty.

Icon

Wsltty installation and the mintty terminal try to use the icon of the respective WSL distribution. If it cannot be determined, a penguin icon is used as a default. You can replace it with your preferred fallback icon by replacing the icon file %LOCALAPPDATA%\wsltty\wsl.ico.

Mintty settings

Mintty can maintain its configuration file in various locations, with the following precedence:

• file given with mintty option -c (not used by wsltty default installation)
• file config in directory given with mintty option --configdir
  • This is %APPDATA%\wsltty\config in the default wsltty installation.
• %HOME%\.minttyrc (usage deprecated with wsltty)
• %HOME%\.config\mintty\config (usage deprecated with wsltty)
• %APPDATA%\mintty\config
• %LOCALAPPDATA%\wsltty\etc\minttyrc (usage deprecated with wsltty)

Note:

• %APPDATA%\wsltty\config is the new user configuration file location. Further subdirectories of %APPDATA%\wsltty are used for language, themes, and sounds resource configuration. Note the distinction from %LOCALAPPDATA%\wsltty which is the default wsltty software installation location.
• The %APPDATA%\mintty\config option provides the possibility to maintain common mintty settings for various installations (like wsltty, Cygwin, MinGW/msys, Git for Windows, MinEd for Windows).
• (About deprecated options) By default, %HOME% would refer to the root directory of the cygwin standalone installation hosting wsltty. So %HOME% would mean %LOCALAPPDATA%\wsltty\home\%USERNAME%. If you define HOME at Windows level, this changes accordingly. Note, however, that the WSL HOME is a completely different setting.

Shell selection and Login shell

The WSLtty deployment does not impose a shell preference anymore. However, the intermediate gateways (wslbridge and its backend and the bash.exe Windows launcher) are also involved.

To invoke your favourite shell or launch the shell in login mode, you may append a shell pathname and an optional -l parameter to the mintty invocation (in shortcuts, scripts, or context menu entries):

• %LOCALAPPDATA%\wsltty\bin\mintty.exe --WSL= --configdir="%APPDATA%\wsltty" /bin/bash -l

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Components and Credits

For mintty, see the Mintty homepage (with further screenshots), the Mintty manual page,
and the Mintty Wiki, including a Hints and Tips page.

It is based on Cygwin and includes its runtime library (sources).

For interacting with WSL, it uses wslbridge. Many thanks for this enabling gateway go especially to Ryan Prichard.