C++ with Visual Studio 2019 and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Erika Sweet

Content outdated


For up-to-date documentation see Walkthrough: Build and Debug C++ with Microsoft Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) and Visual Studio 2022.

For an overview of the Visual Studio capabilities described in this article, see Develop C and C++ applications.

This post was updated on December 11, 2020

Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 added native support for using C++ with the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). WSL lets you run a lightweight Linux environment directly on Windows, including most command-line tools, utilities, and applications. In Visual Studio you no longer need to add a remote connection or configure SSH in order to build and debug on your local WSL installation. This will save you time getting up and running in a Linux environment and eliminates the need to copy and maintain sources on a remote machine. In order to use our native support for WSL you will need to install the Linux Development with C++ workload in Visual Studio.

In this blog post, we’ll first look at how to set up WSL. We will then walk-through how to use it with a CMake project and a MSBuild-based Linux project. We recommend using CMake for all C++ cross-platform development. If you are just getting started with our native support for CMake, be sure to check out our CMake Support in Visual Studio introductory page too.

WSL1 versus WSL2

Our native support for WSL works best with WSL1. Our support executes all commands locally through wsl.exe and relies on Windows drives mounted under the /mnt folder (e.g. /mnt/c/Users…) to access local source files from WSL. These commands are slower with WSL2 because performance across the Windows and Linux operating systems is faster in WSL1 than WSL2. Learn more about the differences between WSL1 and WSL2 here.

To avoid these slowdowns, you can install and run SSH on your local WSL2 installation and add a new SSH connection to WSL2 as if it were a remote machine. Stay tuned to the C++ Team Blog for more information on our WSL2 support.

Setting up WSL

You can find details on how to install WSL here, but the easiest way is to download your distro of choice (Ubuntu, Debian, etc.) from the Microsoft Store.

To configure your WSL installation to work with Visual Studio you need the following tools installed: a compiler (GCC or Clang), gdb, rsync, and zip. If you are using CMake, then you will also need to install an underlying build system (Ninja or Unix Makefiles). You can install them on distros that use apt with the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install g++ gdb make ninja-build rsync zip

In this tutorial, I’ll use GCC and Unix Makefiles.

The inclusion of rsync and zip allows Visual Studio to extract header files from your WSL instance to the Windows filesystem to use for IntelliSense. Due to the lack of visibility into the root file system of WSL from Windows, a local rsync copy is done inside WSL to copy the headers to a Windows visible location. This is a one-time operation that Visual Studio performs to configure IntelliSense for Linux connections.

Visual Studio CMake projects and WSL

Let’s start by looking at a simple CMake project.

1. Start Visual Studio 2019 (version 16.1 or later) and create a new CMake project using the “CMake Project” template or open an existing one.

2. Navigate to the configuration drop-down menu and select “Manage Configurations…” This will open the CMake Settings Editor.

A drop-down menu in Visual Studio with the option to "Manage Configurations..." selected. 3. Visual Studio creates an x64-Debug configuration by default. You can add a new WSL configuration by clicking on the green plus sign above the configuration manager on the left-hand side of the editor.

Image Linux Configs 4. Select a WSL-GCC-Debug configuration. If you are building with Clang, then you can select a WSL-Clang-Debug or WSL-Clang-Release configuration.

Image Linux NewConfig 5. By default, Visual Studio will pick up on your default WSL configuration. If you have side-by-side installations of WSL, then you can specify which WSL executable Visual Studio should use by setting the “Path to WSL executable” property under the “General” section of the CMake Settings Editor.

6. Select Unix Makefiles as your generator. If you are using Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6 or later, then Visual Studio will attempt to use Ninja by default. Scroll down to the bottom of the CMake Settings Editor and click the link to “Show advanced settings”. Set the “Generator” to Unix Makefiles.

The CMake Settings Editor is open. The Generator option is set to Unix Makefiles.

7. Save the editor (Ctrl + S) and select your WSL-GCC-Debug configuration as your active configuration using the configuration drop-down menu at the top of the page. This will start the cache generation of your WSL configuration.

Image Linux SelectConfig 8. If you don’t have CMake on your WSL installation, then you will be prompted to automatically deploy a recent version of CMake from Visual Studio. If you are missing any other dependencies (gcc, gdb, make, rsync, zip) then see above for Setting up WSL.

9. In the Solution Explorer expand the project subfolder and in the .cpp file set a breakpoint in main() .

10. In the launch bar change the launch target from “Current Document” to your project name.

11. Now click “Start” (Debug > Start) or press F5. Your project will build, the executable will launch, and you will hit your breakpoint. You can see the output of your program (in this case, “Hello CMake”) in the Linux Console Window.

A sample CMake project is running under the debugger and hitting a breakpoint. The Linux Console Window displays the program output.

Visual Studio MSBuild-based projects and WSL

We also support using WSL from our MSBuild-based Linux projects in Visual Studio. Here are the steps for getting started.

1. Create a new Linux Console Application (you can filter platform by Linux and look for “Console App”) in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 or later or open an existing one.

2. Right-click on the project in the Solution Explorer and select “Properties” to open the Project Property Pages.

The Solution Explorer in Visual Studio. "Properties" is selected from the project's context menu.

3. In the dialog that opens you will see the “General” property page. On this page, there is an option for “Platform Toolset.” Change this from “GCC for Remote Linux” to “GCC for Windows Subsystem for Linux.” If you are building with Clang, then you can select the “Clang for Windows Subsystem for Linux” toolset.

Image Linux WSLToolset

4. By default, Visual Studio will target the WSL installation that is set as the default through wslconfig. If you have side-by-side installations of WSL, then you can specify which WSL executable Visual Studio should use by setting the “WSL *.exe full path” option directly below “Platform Toolset.” Press OK.

5. Set a breakpoint in main.cpp and click “Start Debugging” (Debug > Start Debugging). If you are missing any dependencies on your WSL installation (gcc, gdb, rsync, zip) then see above for Setting up WSL. You can see the output of your program in the Linux Console Window.

A C++ Linux project is running under the debugger. The Linux Console Windows displays the output of the application.

Give us your feedback!

If you have feedback on WSL or anything regarding our Linux support in Visual Studio, we would love to hear from you. We can be reached via the comments below or Twitter (@VisualC). If you encounter other problems with Visual Studio or MSVC or have a suggestion, you can use the Report a Problem tool in Visual Studio or head over to Visual Studio Developer Community.


Coming soon…

More announcements about AddressSanitizer integration for Linux projects, Code Analysis quick fixes, and Quick Info improvements are coming to the C++ Team Blog later this week. Stay tuned!

50 comments

Discussion is closed. Login to edit/delete existing comments.

  • Piotr Maciejewski 0

    Great feature. 

  • Hristo Hristov 0

    Could this be used to cross-compile on WSL and deploy and debug on a remote arm device like NVIDIA Nano easily?

    • Erika SweetMicrosoft employee 0

      Hi Histro, this would require the separation of build and debug targets, which was just announced today. Unfortunately this support does not apply to native WSL configurations yet, so you will need to connect to WSL via SSH and treat it as a remote connection or order to separate your build machine (WSL) from your deploy/debug machine (ARM device) 

  • David Hunter 0

    Hi, works great for the test program. Our software has already moved on from GCC 7 which is what you get by default on Ubuntu Bionic. I did try GCC 8 and Clang 8 and they seemed to work for the test. Should I expect them to work in general for large code bases?

    • Erika SweetMicrosoft employee 0

      Hi David, we have some bug fixes coming in Preview 4 but mostly targeting CMake. WSL integration should work for large code bases but if you run into any problems please open an issue on Developer Community. Incrementality for MSBuild-based Linux projects is also coming soon – I will follow-up here when that is available. Thanks! 

  • Warren Buckley 0

    I’ve tried following this walkthrough but VS2019 does not see the WSL. None of the options you showed for selecting the WSL appears in either the CMakeConfig or the property pages of a Linux console project..
    Edit: Nevermind, didn’t see that I needed the preview version of VS in order to use this feature.

    • Elizabeth MorrowMicrosoft employee 0

      This will be available in the general release of VS 2019 Update 1

  • Ike Starnes 0

    WSL_1_0 is not an option in the “Platform Toolset” for a brand new VCXPROJ. I only see “Remote_GCC_1_0” in the drop down list.

    Edit: Also, for a CMake project, WSL options are NOT availble when trying to add a new configuration. Seems something is missing.

    • Erika SweetMicrosoft employee 0

      Hi Ike, are you using version 16.1 Preview 3? This feature is not generally available yet. You can check your build number of Visual Studio in the top right-hand corner of the IDE. You can also install version 16.1 Preview 3 here.

      • R-J Wolthuis 0

        I am currently on version 16.1.3. Has this feature never been released?
        BTW, I have only the “Legacy” WSL install (with Ubuntu v18.04), could that be an issue?

  • Patrik Huber 0

    I followed this tutorial exactly (with the CMake example project), changed the launch target to the executable, and when I hit F5 (Debug), I get an error dialog box “The given key was not present in the dictionary.”. The output window shows the following:

    cd /mnt/c/Users/Patrik/VSCMakeProjectWSLTest/VSCMakeProjectWSLTest/out/build/WSL-Debug;export CXXFLAGS=-fsanitize\=address;export CFLAGS=-fsanitize\=address;export LDFLAGS=-fsanitize\=address;$HOME/.vs/cmake/bin/cmake –build “/mnt/c/Users/Patrik/VSCMakeProjectWSLTest/VSCMakeProjectWSLTest/out/build/WSL-Debug” –target VSCMakeProjectWSLTest ;
    [100%] Built target VSCMakeProjectWSLTest

    Edit: Sorry for the bad formatting, not sure how to format code/output here, backticks and “>” didn’t work.

    • Kostrzewa, Kevin P. (TR Tech, Content & Ops) 0

      I received the same error dialog (The given key was not present in the dictionary) with VS2019 version 16.1.0 Preview 3.0
      The output window shows
      cd /mnt/c/Users/kevin/source/repos/crossPlatformWSLTest-pvw/out/build/WSL-Debug;$HOME/.vs/cmake/bin/cmake –build “/mnt/c/Users/kevin/source/repos/crossPlatformWSLTest-pvw/out/build/WSL-Debug” –target crossPlatformWSLTest-pvw ;
      [100%] Built target crossPlatformWSLTest-pvw

      • Johannes Otepka 0

        Exact same problem for me (although I get the error message in German “Der angegebene Schlüssel war nicht im Wörterbuch angegeben.”). Do you need further details on my system?
        Please fix this issue, since I’m really looking forward to use this feature…

    • Erika SweetMicrosoft employee 0

      Hi all, this is a known issue that will be resolved in the next release of version 16.1. I’ll circle back here as soon as it’s available. Thanks! 

  • 屿 罗 0

    Hi Erika, good feature! I’m wondering how to deploy my project after development. Do I still need to open a remote connection?

    • Erika SweetMicrosoft employee 0

      Nope! You no longer need to open a remote connection when working with WSL. For MSBuild-based Linux projects you can deploy your solution by selecting “Deploy Soltution” (Build > Deploy Solution). The solution is also automatically deployed when you start a debugging session. You can see where the executable is located in the Debug pane of the output windows (e.g. /mnt/c/Users…).

  • 游 虎 0

    Project build success. But got this error and all headers cannot be loaded and IntelliSense is totally broken:
    Unable to find a stored connection for machine ”. Please add a new connection using Tools > Options > Cross Platform > Connection Manager.

    Project: https://github.com/btccom/btcagent/tree/deveth
    Clone to G:\work\btcagent.vs2019 (mount to /mnt/g/btcagent.vs2019 and /g/btcagent.vs2019 in WSL).
    VS2019 version 16.1.0 Preview 3.0.

    • Elizabeth MorrowMicrosoft employee 0

      Thank you for the feedback. This bug has been fixed in 16.1 Preview 4!

  • Кузнецов Евгений Олегович 0

    When using the WSL + MSBuild, I ran into the following problems:
    1) It seems to be missing the “Lib” target in Linux.WSL.targets, so its impossible to build a static library.
    2) Parallel compilation doesn’t work.
    3) MSBuild doesn’t check if the translation unit should be rebuilt, so it always rebuilds the whole project.
    MSBuild WSL support is the great functionality, and I hope it will be fixed in the new preview and it will be possible to use it.

    • Erika SweetMicrosoft employee 0

      Issues 1 and 3 will be resolved in future updates – I will post back here when they are available for download. Can you please open a feature suggestion on Developer Community for the second issue (parallel compilation?) This will allow you to engage with our team directly, track the suggestion’s status, and provide transparency to other user’s with the same issue. Thank you! 

      • Hintz, Adam J 0

        Is there an ETA or a ticket to track for #1 and / or #3? I’m exploring options for my team to work with this soon but we can’t use the WSL targets without static libraries. I tried with the latest preview (16.2.0 Preview 3.0) but #1 is still outstanding (didn’t try #3, since #1 is a blocker).

  • Mark de Wit 0

    I’m loving this feature!  I’ll try out the WSL integration for sure.  Here is some early feedback:
    I have a version of cmake built from the kitware sources myself – this installed in /usr/local/bin/cmake, but it appears you only search for cmake in /usr/bin.  It would be great if you could either expand the locations you search, or use whatever cmake appears in the path?

    Update: I managed to build something (created a softlink to my cmake binary to proceed).  However, when trying to run the debugger I only get a dialog with the error message: The given key was not present in the dictionary”.   No further information as to which key, what dictionary.   Note – my WSL is Ubuntu 18.04, gcc 7.4.0

    • Erika SweetMicrosoft employee 0

      Hey Mark, glad to hear you’re enjoying the feature! For future reference, you can change the path to the CMake executable in the CMake Settings Editor > Advanced Settings (link at the bottom of the editor) > CMake executable. The “given key not present in the directory” error is a known issue and will be fixed in the next release of version 16.1. I’ll circle back here when it’s available. 

      • Mark de Wit 0

        Thanks Erika and Elizabeth, will definitely keep an eye out for preview 4!

    • Elizabeth MorrowMicrosoft employee 0

      Hi Mark!
      Really happy to hear you’re using the new feature. In your cmakesettings.json file you can specify a path to your cmake installation without the soft link by clicking the “Show advanced settings” hyperlink in the cmake settings editor and modifying the contents of “CMake executable path”.
      The “given key was not present in the dictionary” bug has been fixed in Preview 4. 
      Thanks,
      Elizabeth

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