3

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
Elder Geek
  • 36,023
  • 25
  • 98
  • 183
  • I don't know what it does but I'm happy it's there. A broader question to yours would be "why does Ubuntu include software I never use?". To plagerize, "You can please all of the Users some of the time and some of the Users all the time but you can't please all the Users all of the time." – WinEunuuchs2Unix Apr 18 '19 at 12:30
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix I'm neither happy nor unhappy. Simply curious. I imagine it's in the repositories so that WSL users can get updates via a system more trustworthy than Microsofts, but that's purely conjecture on my part. – Elder Geek Apr 18 '19 at 21:42

1 Answers1

0

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 <rbalint@ubuntu.com>  Sat, 30 Mar 2019 15:59:08 +0100
Elder Geek
  • 36,023
  • 25
  • 98
  • 183