CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-studio-codewindows-subsystem-for-linux
iko79
iko79

Reputation: 1248

Visual Studio Code Terminal bash vs. Ubuntu for Windows 10 bash

I just started with VS Code today as I have to prepare to port some of my code to Linux and I noticed that in the Terminal section there is the option of having a WSL bash, so I thought I could use this to compile my projects with gcc right there. I already installed Ubuntu for Windows 10 from the MSFT Store some time ago an installed several packages there. The thing is that the Ubuntu bash doesn't seem to share to the Linux workspace with the bash I see in VS Code, since in the latter I am lacking all those packages I already installed; it seems to be a completely different installation. Also, I noticed that the bash in the VS Code terminal uses German language while the Ubuntu App's bash is in English. (I have no idea why this is since Windows as well as VS Code is English.)

I'm quite confused about these differences, how do ubuntu.exe and bash.exe relate to each other? Can anybody shed some light on this? Obviously, it would be preferrable to to have only ONE Linux workspace in WSL so I don't have to have duplicates (of my data and also the installed packages) at different places.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2812

Answers (1)

Victor S.
Victor S.

Reputation: 2767

To use WSL bash in VS Code integrated terminal, you need to add/change setting:

"terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe",

Restart VS Code or integrated terminal.

If two or more WSL distro are installed, then you need to specify the path to the desired distro.

For example you can find it by running: where ubuntu, where ubuntu1604 or where ubuntu1804. And change the settings to the desired ones. For example:

    "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\WindowsApps\\ubuntu1604.exe",

Upvotes: 3

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