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Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]

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Re: Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]

#91
post #72

Dumb question: Why did they name this "Subsystem for Linux"? (Old name was Interix, subsystem for UNIX-based applications , or "SUA".) Does marketing/users believe there is a distinction between Linux as a kernel and GNU as a source for a userland? Irrelevant? Curious what others think.

The old stuff provided source-level compatibility with UNIX via posix compliance.

The Subsystem for Linux is essentially an implementation of the Linux ABI, which is distinct from UNIX and provides true binary compatibility.

The ironic thing is that WSL itself is deliberately not Linux; the only similarity is the user-space ABI.

Unfortunately, I've met very few developers (admittedly interacting mostly with students) who have any understanding of what is Linux vs. GNU utilities vs. UNIX, vs. Ubuntu. "macOS is basically Linux right? Its because of the Terminal". screams

Re: Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]

#93
post #88

I've been running windows (using WSL for most of my development) for a few months and overall I'm very happy with it. Every non-GUI linux program I want to run works just fine on WSL, with the sole exception of (beta software) Urbit. I do miss Xmonad-like window management, but windows does have shortcut keys that do a good enough job. Emacs works perfectly well. And Anaconda ( https://www.continuum.io/downloads ) is…

Emacs has one flaw for me under WSL: the janky Windows console doesn't pass C-SPC. Meaning I have to bind set-mark-command to something else (like M-SPC), or download and use wsltty (fork of mintty). But other than that Emacs is fine, and a lot of Linux stuff (Node, mongo, etc.) works great. Who cares if Urbit doesn't work? :)

To be clear, I use one of the GUI versions of emacs for windows. C-spc works fine there.

I'd like to play with Urbit - Yarvin and his goals are interesting enough that I'm willing to spend a few hours playing around.

Re: Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]

#94
post #34
post #31

Newb question, does this "Winbash" run Linux/posix/unixy binaries that wouldn't otherwise run or does it assume the actual Windows dists/builds for (Elixir / Go / PostgreSQL / MySQL / GHC / etcpp)?

* Yes, these are native, ELF binaries. Yes, you can compile it on your linux server, cp it across to windows, and run it. * No, it is not an emulation. The win10 kernel + compatibility layer just happens to be able to also run ELF binaries. Yes, these show up as standard processes, and can be interacted with using normal windows tools (eg taskmgr).

Windows also needs to simulate the Linux kernel ABI -- not just "run ELF binaries". It's like "kernel personalities" in BSD.

Re: Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]

#95
post #72

Dumb question: Why did they name this "Subsystem for Linux"? (Old name was Interix, subsystem for UNIX-based applications , or "SUA".) Does marketing/users believe there is a distinction between Linux as a kernel and GNU as a source for a userland? Irrelevant? Curious what others think.

Agreed. The name is backasswards; it should be "Linux Subsystem for Windows".

Re: Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]

#97
post #71
post #2

This is coming to Windows stable in April: - vt sequences fixed (so stuff like colored output, midnight commander, etc work and the terminal doesn't screw up) - Elixir and Go work - Also Postgres and MySQL - You can launch Windows apps from bash. - inotify works - Visual Studio can compile with GNU/Linux C/C++ tools, gdb, linker etc There's some recent fast ring info on: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2…

Is iterating over network interfaces possible? IIRC that was causing a lot of issues with local nodejs dev servers

On their blog they state that raw sockets (ping), ip address / ip route will work.

Re: Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]

#98
Any news about 256-color support? I understand the desire for the extreme backwards compatibility, but it requires some manual magic done to display things properly in fish (which, thankfully, works really well with Bash on Windows after the aforementioned magic), and even then it will only support 16 colors.

Re: Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]

#99
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - You can launch Windows apps from bash. So I can basically do `code .` from inside bash and it will open VS Code in the linux sub-system folder? That's amazing!

Just for reference, I've been doing this for a few months now. I'm not sure what's changed, but you'll need ubuntu 16 (you can uninstall 14 and reinstall WSL to get it) in WSL to do it.

Are you running the fast ring build?

EDIT: Actually, since I am doing that as well, I just tested it. And yes, it all works!

Re: Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]

#100
post #2

This is coming to Windows stable in April: - vt sequences fixed (so stuff like colored output, midnight commander, etc work and the terminal doesn't screw up) - Elixir and Go work - Also Postgres and MySQL - You can launch Windows apps from bash. - inotify works - Visual Studio can compile with GNU/Linux C/C++ tools, gdb, linker etc There's some recent fast ring info on: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2…

> - You can launch Windows apps from bash. So I can basically do `code .` from inside bash and it will open VS Code in the linux sub-system folder? That's amazing!

I was under the impression that only linux sub-system applications should be modifying files inside the linux sub-system.

For example, using windows explorer to edit linux sub-system files would be a big no-no.

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