In Posts / Guides / Console • January 10th, 2020

WSL Configuration

My Linux shell configuration is used exclusively with Cmder and WSL; I've included some basic installation and setup instructions here.


If you don't have WSL and Cmder, you'll need those if you want to mirror my setup exactly. My Cmder config is right here.

Run the following in your WSL shell (the bash::Ubuntu task from my Cmder config):

sudo apt install zsh
chsh -s $(which zsh)

Restart your shell (closing and re-opening the Cmder tab is sufficient) and you should be greeted with a configuration page. Choose option 0, and then enter the following:

curl -Lo


Below is my ~/.zshrc configuration (comments in-line):

export PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH

export ZSH="/home/jackw/.oh-my-zsh"


# Windows is case-sensitive

plugins=(git ssh-agent)

# Use with caution, you need to trust the servers
# you connect to if you have this on and enabled
zstyle :omz:plugins:ssh-agent agent-forwarding on

source $ZSH/

# Used by git automatically, so needs to be something
# basic and in-console
export EDITOR='vim'

# I use Visual Studio Code - Insiders but I'm used to
# "code" being on my path
alias code="code-insiders"

SSH Keys

If you already have a private id_rsa key in your Windows user .ssh folder, you can copy it to your WSL user folder to seamlessly make use of it there too:

# Assuming you are in
# your Windows user folder
mkdir ~/.ssh
cp .ssh/id_rsa ~/.ssh/
chmod 400 ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Restart your console or run source ~/.zshrc and the key should be read in.

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Copyright 2020 Jack Warren