Along with Windows 10 Anniversary update for summer 2016, came the possibility to run ubuntu binaries inside the new Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), a "lightweight" virtualized subsystem.
Unfortunately, launching C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe
, another bash
ELF binary starts a process inside the WSL, from where you cannot escape! You may launch only other ELF binaries.
So how can I execute *.exe
files from Windows Bash?[1]
[1] Question asked also in Microsoft's "official" GH support repo.
Run Windows tools from Linux WSL can run Windows tools directly from the WSL command line using [tool-name].exe . For example, notepad.exe .
One of the benefits of WSL is being able to access your files via both Windows and Linux apps or tools. Using your mounted drives, you can edit code in, for example, C:\dev\myproj\ using Visual Studio / or VS Code, and build/test that code in Linux by accessing the same files via /mnt/c/dev/myproj .
In the Windows 10 Creators Update (build 1703, April 2017), this is natively supported. So you can now run Windows binaries from Linux... wsl command_to_run i.e: wsl "ls" ; or specify the distro you want to use to run it using: ubuntu run ls.
A straightforward answer to the question is—Yes. You can run EXE files and other Windows programs on Linux, and it's not as complicated as it sounds. By the end, you'll have a brief understanding of executable files, along with different ways to run said programs on Linux.
In the Windows 10 Creators Update (build 1703, April 2017), this is natively supported. So you can now run Windows binaries from Linux...
notepad.exe
or any other .exe
(the extension is needed and it needs being on your path, some older versions need the whole path)
...and vice versa using one of the following:
bash.exe -c command_to_run
i.e: bash.exe -c ls
bash -c command_to_run
i.e: bash -c ls
wsl command_to_run
i.e: wsl "ls"
; or specify the distro you want to use to run it using: ubuntu run ls
For more information, see the above linked article.
The official solution provided with Windows 10 Insider Preview Update (14951) is based on the almost forgotten binfmt_msc Linux facility for launching binaries. The registration command for the binfmt_misc would be like this (where /init
is the provisional binfmt_misc "interpreter" for the win-executables):
sudo echo ":WSLInterop:M::MZ::/init:" > /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register
And then win-executable would be launched like regular programs:
$ export PATH=$PATH:/mnt/c/Windows/System32 $ notepad.exe $ ipconfig.exe | grep IPv4 | cut -d: -f2 $ ls -la | findstr.exe foo.txt $ cmd.exe /c dir
Not that any win-executable must reside in the windows (DrvFs) file-system - not on the Linux's file-system (VolFs) - in order to inherit a proper Windows working-directory.
Untill you get the latest build, project cbwin offers a workaround, by installing 3 new linux commands inside WSL:
wcmd
: call a win-executable through cmd.exe
. wrun
: call a win-executable synchronously with CreateProcess
, and wait to die (not using cmd.exe
). wstart
: launch a detached (asynchronously) command (with the use of cmd.exe
).In order to use them, you must:
outbash.exe
will be installed in your regular Windows filesystem (somewhere in your %PATH%
), plus outbash.exe
(wherever you installed it) to start WSL, NOT C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe
!wrun notepad
.Tip: If the executable launched with wcmd
or wrun
spawns any children, these survive only for as long that executable remains alive.
In other words, trying to start notepad.exe
with wcmd
won't work, because notepad will be killed just after having been launched -- Use wrun
(synchronously) or wstart
(asynchronously) in this case.
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