Alright, this post is for our developer friends only: the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview Build – build 14316 – includes the much-hyped Bash shell from Ubuntu. What’s the Bash shell, and how can you start using it in Windows 10? Find out after the bump.
Start Using Bash In Windows 10
As of typing this post, you need to be a Windows Insider running Insider Preview Build 14316 on your Windows 10 PC to be able to execute Bash commands and scripts. If you’ve met these requirements, you’re good to go.
Here’s what you need to setup Bash on Ubuntu Linux on Windows 10: first, go to Settings > Update & security > For developers and enable Developer Mode; second, search for Windows Features, and from Turn Windows features on or off go ahead and enable Windows subsystem for Linux (beta); third and final, open the Command Prompt and type bash to install it. That’s it!
We will update this post later on when Microsoft releases this feature to the general public as part of the Anniversary Update later this year. Until then, happy scripting!
What is Bash, and why is it on Windows 10?
Friends, please correct me if I goof up while explaining Bash. Although I’m a Software Engineer by education, I never took much interest in the core coding aspect of it, and mostly enjoy living in the design phase.
You know Command Prompt in Windows 10, right? It’s this weird little black app that requires you to use text commands to get stuff done. Well, Bash is a hugely popular shell and command language that runs just below the Command Prompt, and it accepts a different, and much more accepted set of commands and scripts. Bash is popular on Linux and OS X where it serves as the primary command line language. Windows is quite late to the party, but developers are happy because this means they’ll be able to use all their favorite, powerful Bash commands and scripts in Windows 10.
People have made a big deal out of Bash on Windows 10 because in order to bring Bash to their operating system, Microsoft had to develop a Linux subsystem just for Windows. So, in running Bash natively on Windows 10, you are – in a way – running Linux on Windows 10. That’s a big deal! If you don’t understand it, I can’t help you. It’s well out of the scope of this blog post.
Hope this helped! If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments section below.
The post How To Setup Native Bash On Ubuntu On Windows 10 appeared first on Windows Clan.
