Show HN: Build Your WSL Distro in Docker

  • I love WSL, but I have multiple systems and juggling apt packages is a pain.

    So I had this in my head for a long time, that I can just build a rootfs using docker and load it in WSL.

    I tried it yesterday, and now I have a CLI tool to build my WSL image using Dockerfiles.

    I'm not sure if it helps anyone, but I wanted to share it, just in case.

    Cheers.

  • This is awesome! I was just today building a new wsl distro, and I didn’t want it tied to just a version of Linux but rather a project. I had to download a rootfs of Ubuntu and import it, and then spent time installing everything. Ofc I could use a bash script to automate the second part.

    So this would have solved my prob: have a dockerfile or image and up an wsl env for it. Given how great wsl is these days (i used to have Linux and Mac as daily drivers, now wsl) I guess this sort of thing will become more and more relevant

  • Nice tool :) I did something similar in a hackathon some years ago. https://github.com/Rucadi/wsld

    It's totally unmaintained and forgotten :D

    In general, what I do now to generate WSL images is to docker run a container, and then export it to a .tar, finally, install that tar, is that easy.

    However, if I had your tool installed, for sure I would use that for ease of use.

  • Very cool, this should help me to be able to separate my different testing environments.

    Thanks for sharing!

  • looks cool! Forgive my ignorance, but what's the adv of this over using Docker on WSL2?

  • Thats a pretty nice thing to have!

    Thanks for sharing this.