microsoft / microsoft/WSL

Make it possible to customize a distro's name at install-time

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#11,951 6 comments 8 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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feature
Dominant language
C++
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

There are times when I'd like to have multiple instances of a distro installed at the same time. As an example, I might want to have two separate copies of Ubuntu installed as independent VMs. At time of writing, this isn't possible because I can't customize the installed name of a distribution.

Current behavior:

> wsl --install -d Ubuntu
(installs ubuntu, with the end result called "Ubuntu")

> wsl --install -d Ubuntu
(fails to install)

Desired behavior:

> wsl --install -d Ubuntu
(installs ubuntu, with the end result called "Ubuntu")

> wsl --install -d Ubuntu -n custom_name
(installs a second ubuntu, with the end result called "custom_name". The other install is not modifed.)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the wsl --install command and trace how the distribution name is selected during installation. Verify that an install-time name such as custom_name permits a second Ubuntu installation while leaving the existing Ubuntu installation unchanged.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp, powershell
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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