Home / ubuntu / Questions / 1134925
Accepted
Elder Geek
Asked: 2019-04-19 04:10:29 +0800 CST

Why is the ubuntu-wsl pushed out to standard Ubuntu installations?

  • 772

This morning I noticed an update to ubuntu-wsl (version 1.361.3) in my updates on Ubuntu 16.04. Specifically What purpose (if any) does this package serve on a standard Ubuntu installation? As it's described as "Utilities for integrating Ubuntu well into the WSL environment" I'm guessing none. All I've been able to find on it is "The ubuntu-wsl metapackage will allow adding new packages for WSL installations only when more integration utilities become available." as mentioned in this bug report but as I'm running standard Ubuntu (Xenial) it seems a useless package for my environment. I don't recall installing it but I guess I must have or I wouldn't be seeing.

Changes for ubuntu-standard versions:
Installed version: 1.361.2
Available version: 1.361.3
16.04 windows-subsystem-for-linux

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    In my environment it does nothing as I'm not running WSL and ubuntu-wsl is a meta-package and it's primary purpose is to handle WSL integration.

    Here's an excerpt from the control file in the .deb

    Description: Ubuntu on Windows tools - Windows Subsystem for Linux integration
 Utilities for integrating Ubuntu well into the WSL environment.
 .
 It is also used to help ensure proper upgrades, so it is recommended that
 it not be removed.

    The changelog within the .deb provides further clues as to why this latest update was pushed out.

      * Added ubuntu-wsl metapackage from the wsl seed (LP: #1822341)
  * Added wslu and ubuntu-minimal's dependencies and recommends to ubuntu-wsl

 -- Balint Reczey <[email protected]>  Sat, 30 Mar 2019 15:59:08 +0100
    • 0