Install WSL

Enable it as a Windows feature

Relevant enough instructions about turning WSL2 on: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/how-to-install-wsl2-on-windows-10 Maybe this also: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10

Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS without Microsoft Market

1. Get Ubuntu 20.04 installation file from here
2. Extract files then run ubuntu2004.

WSL console is broken

Some users report issues with <Tab> handling, some report issues with Unicode, some report both, some report none.

Either way, it does seem like WSL console as well as running wsl.exe aren't sustainable options.

Quick and dirty method to get a working WSL console

• Install VSCode, which has its own terminal emulator
• Click F1 and choose "Remote-WSL: New window"
• Press C-`
• You have a reasonable, standard-adhering, very slow, terminal emulator

Time-tested an powerful, but awkward and intrusive method

• Install Cygwin
  • Choose Internet installation
  • Choose a mirror close to you that you can reasonably trust
  • Install at least the packages listed in Comfortable Cygwin.md file in this repository
• While it installs, make a C:\Scripts directory in Windows
• Put pfwsl.ps1 script you can find in this repository into C:\Scripts
• Enable it in Task Scheduler as shown here: https://youtu.be/IrvXPw2WGIc
• Run the task. Now you should be able to ssh to localhost.
• After cygwin is installed, run mintty, also known as Cygwin64 Terminal
• Add ssh localhost to your .bashrc. Now every time you're opening a new shell, you'll get dropped into WSL. If you need to do something in Cygwin, just C-d from that ssh shell. (I think it may mess with outgoing rsync, but I don't think it should be a big problem). If it is, remove this line and write ssh localhost every time you need to do into WSL.

That's it, now you have a reasonable old-school MinTTY terminal, but also, SSH enabled in your WSL, which is sometimes helpful.

Hint! It isn't as helpful as you may think because. You can access WSL files via \\wsl$ and Windows files via /mnt/c. This directory sharing enabled by default also has security implications... You probably shouldn't dissect malware in WSL thinking it's an isolated VM.

Less deranged alternatives (I didn't try)

Using Cmder or other ConEmu frontends

I've tried it, but it didn't work for some reason. I don't remember much, but if someone has a modern and working solution which doesn't involve cygwin, please share.

Using Alacrity on Windows

I haven't tried it, but it seems like Alacrity is cross-platform enough to be usable on Windows.

Good bash experience

I want to say straight away that bash historically was less feature-rich than, say, zsh, but these days tools like fzf turn bash into a very nice system. I don't use fzf yet, but I'd love to integrate it into my bash.

If you have the access, you can download and personalise my minimalist bashrc. If you don't, here are some key outtakes that you should incorporate into your shell.

Do nothing in non-interactive mode

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[[ $- != *i* ]] && return

Hint! This may be the most important thing I have listed.

PS1 prompt

ps1_date="\[$(tput bold)\]\[$(tput setaf 8)\]\$(date +'%a %b %d %H:%M:%S:%N')"
ps1_user="\[$(tput setaf 80)\]\u\[$(tput setaf 226)\]@\[$(tput setaf 80)\]\h"
ps1_path="\[$(tput setaf 8)\]\w"
ps1_lambda="\[$(tput setaf 8)\]λ\[$(tput sgr0)\]"

git_prompt() {
  local ref="$(git symbolic-ref -q HEAD 2>/dev/null)"
  if [ -n "$ref" ]; then
    echo "$(tput setaf 241)(${ref#refs/heads/}) "
  fi
}

export PS1="${ps1_date} ${ps1_user} ${ps1_path} \$(git_prompt)\n${ps1_lambda} "

VI mode, VIM as default editor, screen-256color terminfo

set -o vi

export EDITOR="vim"
export TERM="screen-256color"

Saner history

HISTCONTROL=ignoredups:erasedups
HISTIGNORE=' *'
HISTSIZE=''
shopt -s histappend

Manually change title

function mk_bash_title() {
  echo -ne "\e]0;${1}\a"
}
export mk_bash_title

function set_bash_title() {
  PROMPT_COMMAND="mk_bash_title \"$1\""
}
export set_bash_title

Hint! You should bre able to use history 1 | sed "s/^[ ]*[0-9]*[ ]*//g" in trap to set the terminal name to whatever was the latest command ran. Warning! This will mess up your terminals if the trap will happen in non-interactive mode, for example, while running rsync. Make sure to never trap and echo in non-interactive modes!

Aliases

alias rg='rg --color=always'
alias less='less -R'
alias emacs='emacs -nw'
alias vi='emacsclient -c -nw'
alias ls='ls -p'

Direnv and nix

Warning! Don't copy-paste this if you don't know what is it about.

When you run bootstrap_home_manager.sh script, it asks you to change ~/.config/nixpkgs/home.nix and add this stuff to your .bashrc:

# Nix
if [ -e /home/sweater/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh ]; then . /home/sweater/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh; fi

# Direnv
export NIX_PATH=$HOME/.nix-defexpr/channels${NIX_PATH:+:}$NIX_PATH
source $HOME/.nix-profile/share/nix-direnv/direnvrc
source $HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh
eval "$(direnv hook bash)"

# boostrap_home_manager.sh: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cognivore/nix-home/main/boostrap_home_manager.sh
export PATH=$HOME/.local/nbin:$PATH

Good vim experience

Again, if you have access, fetch my vimrc and .vim directory modify them to your needs.

Otherwise, install ctrlp, which would allow you to open files deep inside the current directory fuzzily by pressing C-p and typing what little you remember about the file name.

Hint! while in Ctrlp mode, C-y will create a file and open it in a new split.

My Ctrlp is installed in a as an unmanaged plugin, thus I need to have set runtimepath^=~/.vim/bundle/ctrlp.vim in my .vimrc!

Disable dangerous keys, add useful toggles for tabs and paste mode

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
let mapleader=","
set pastetoggle=<Leader>v
map <Leader>. :tabprevious<CR>
map <Leader>/ :tabnext<CR>
map Q <nop>
map K <nop>
nnoremap <PageUp> <nop>
noremap <PageDown> <nop>
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

This allows you to:

• toggle paste mode by pressing ,v
• go to the next / previous tabs with,/ / ,.

Delete trailing spaces on save (sorry Markdown power-users)

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
autocmd BufWritePre * %s/\s\+$//e
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
autocmd BufRead,BufEnter *.txt,*.md,*.markdown setlocal textwidth=72
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Sensible, yet dangerous defaults

Warning! This disables swap files and backups! It's a pretty idiotic thing to do, but that's how I roll, because I feel it saves me more time than answering a question every time I killed VIM.

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
set cm=blowfish2
set nocompatible
set noswapfile
set nobackup
set number
set relativenumber
set smartindent
set tabstop=2
set shiftwidth=2
set backspace=2
set expandtab
set nohlsearch
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Monochrome VIM with 256 colours

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
syntax off
filetype on
set background=dark
set t_Co=256
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Sensible tmux configuration (C-a FTW!)

• This configuration uses C-a instead of the default C-b as the lead hotkey.
• It uses more reasonable C-a | for vertical split and C-a - for horizontal split.
• VIM movement keys hjkl are accepted for movements across splits.
• This configuration supports 256 colour terminals and Emacs's "evil mode".

#### USABILITY (VIM/Screen-like)
set -g prefix C-a
bind-key C-a last-window
set-option -g history-limit 100000
setw -g xterm-keys on
set-option -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
setw -g mode-keys vi
set-option -g allow-rename off
set-option -g automatic-rename off

# NB! Emacs evil-mode fix
set -s escape-time 0

#### Splitting and walking around splits
bind-key | split-window -h
bind-key - split-window

unbind-key j
bind-key j select-pane -D

unbind-key k
bind-key k select-pane -U

unbind-key h
bind-key h select-pane -L

unbind-key l
bind-key l select-pane -R

#### 256 Co
set -g terminal-overrides 'xterm:colors=256'