Backup & Restore WSL distributions
WSL distributions can be backed up and restored using the --export and --import flags. This is useful for moving WSL distributions to new machines, creating backups before making modifications, and for restoring from "base" images.
The WSL backup files are in .tar format.
Backup WSL
Backing up a WSL distribution involves compressing the entire virtual disk to a .tar file. The general command format is: wsl --export <distribution-name> C:\path\to\<backup-name>.tar.
Restore WSL
Restoring a WSL distribution involves decompressing an existing .tar file into a full clone of the source. The general command format is: wsl --import <new-distribution-name> C:\path\to\new-distribution-name C:\path\to\<old-distribution-name>.tar
wsl --import debian-new C:\wsl\debian-new C:\wsl_backups\debian.tar
Clone existing WSL into new image
A useful practice is to create a "base" image that you can use to spawn off new WSL distributions as-needed. If you want a specific set of configurations, installed packages, etc, you can create a WSL distribution where you make all of these changes, then take a backup which you can repeatedly restore from for new distributions.
For example, say you have a WSL distribution named deb-base. In this distribution, you have modified the /etc/wsl.conf file, installed git, docker, and neovim. You've modified the ~/.config/nvim directory, setting up a customized environment for the neovim app. You've also installed tmux and modified ~/.tmux.config.
You do not want to repeat these steps each time you create a new WSL distribution. Pretend you now want to create a distribution named deb-pydev, where you will install Astral's uv project manager.
- First, create a backup of
deb-basewsl --export deb-base C:\wsl_backups\deb-base.tar
- Then, create a new distribution named
deb-pydev, with the WSL VM's data stored inC:\wsl\deb-pydevwsl --import deb-pydev C:\wsl\deb-pydev C:\wsl_backup\deb-base.tar