bashubuntuwindows-10windows-subsystem-for-linux

Bash/WSL - How to run command as root?


>ubuntu1804.exe -c "echo $USER"
mpen  

That runs the command as me, how do I run it as root?

The help page doesn't even mention -c

>ubuntu1804.exe help
Launches or configures a Linux distribution.

Usage:
    <no args>
        Launches the user's default shell in the user's home directory.

    install [--root]
        Install the distribuiton and do not launch the shell when complete.
          --root
              Do not create a user account and leave the default user set to root.

    run <command line>
        Run the provided command line in the current working directory. If no
        command line is provided, the default shell is launched.

    config [setting [value]]
        Configure settings for this distribution.
        Settings:
          --default-user <username>
              Sets the default user to <username>. This must be an existing user.

    help
        Print usage information.

Solution

  • Turns out there's another command simply called wsl that lets you run arbitrary commands as arbitrary users:

    >wsl -u root -d Ubuntu-18.04 -- echo "I am g$USER"
    I am groot
    

    N.B. you need to use separate args (instead of a string) for this one.

    -d is optional. You can change the default distro like

    wslconfig.exe /l
    wslconfig.exe /s Ubuntu-18.04
    wslconfig.exe /l
    

    wslconfig /l appears to be equivalent to wsl --list