Magento 2 : Running magento 2 on windows using windows subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Introduction:

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a new Windows 10 feature that enables you to run native Linux command-line tools directly on Windows, alongside your traditional Windows desktop and modern store apps.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux lets developers run GNU/Linux environment -- including most command-line tools, utilities, and applications -- directly on Windows, unmodified, without the overhead of a virtual machine.

You can:

• Choose your favorite GNU/Linux distributions from the Windows Store.
• Run common command-line free software such as grep, sed, awk, or other ELF-64 binaries. Run Bash shell scripts and GNU/Linux command-line applications including:
• Tools: vim, emacs, tmux
• Languages: PHP, Javascript/node.js, Ruby, Python, C/C++, C# & F#, Rust, Go, etc.
• Services: sshd, MySQL, Apache, lighttpd Install additional software using own GNU/Linux distribution package manager.
• Invoke Windows applications using a Unix-like command-line shell.
• Invoke GNU/Linux applications on Windows.

Installation:

• Enable developer mode from settings.

• Open powershell/cmd as admin and enable WSL using following command

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

You can also enable it from window features in GUI.

• Restart your system.
• Install distro of your choice from the windows store. (Just search for eg. Ubuntu and install).
• Access WSL using bash command on cmd.
• It will ask you to set username and password for your linux user.
• Check your distro using the following command ;

lsb_release -a

• Install apache using the following command;

sudo apt-get install apache2

• Start apache using the following command;

sudo service apache2 start

• Access localhost to see if apache has been started successfully. Just open up the browser of your choice and type 'localhost'.

• Install mysql using following command ;

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

• Start mysql using the following command ;

sudo service mysql start

• Access mysql to make sure it is running properly

mysql -uroot -p

Use exit/quit command to exit mysql.

• Install PHP using the following command

sudo apt-get install php7.2

You can install php version of your choice by just mentioning the version.

• Check if PHP has been installed using the following command;

php -v

• Check if you have all the modules needed by placing index.php having phpinfo() at /var/www/html and accessing localhost/index.php
• Install composer using following command;

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer -o composer-setup.php

If you do not have curl, install it using sudo apt-get install curl

• Make symlink of your Windows Magento project folder/ from where you want to access Magento files in /var/www/html using ;

sudo ln -s /mnt/c/projects/magento23 /var/www/html/magento23

Note that all the windows filesystem can be found mounted in /mnt folder.

• cd into your symlinked folder and install Magento using composer.

In my opinion, the WSL way of using Magento in windows is much faster than native windows and much more hassle-free than installing a virtual machine and dealing with its problems. You also have direct access to all project files so you can use your preferred editor for coding.

Note : Currently I have to start apache and mysql server after every restart but I will update if I can get it added to systemctl boot time.