WSL2 Debugging with Visual Studio

Is now included in Visual Studio 2019

Previously, you had to download the extension which was in "preview" only. The link is provided as a reference to the documentation.

• Old Tool

Prerequisites

First things first, you must be running at least VS 2019 (latest update) and enable WSL 2 on your Windows 10 box.

• Visual Studio 2019 v16.6
• .NET Core Tools
• WSL 2

Install Linux Distro

Next, be sure to install a Linux distro from the Microsoft store.

1. WSL 2 distribution
   • Download your favorite distro.
   • I've only tested with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (~450 MB).
2. After downloading, launch the distro
3. Configure your Username and Password.

Prerequisites for Distros

1. Install .NET on your WSL distro via,.NET Core runtime
2. Curl

Configure WSL 2

Sample Profile

"WSL 2": {
  "commandName": "WSL2",
  "launchBrowser": true,
  "launchUrl": "https://localhost:5001",
  "environmentVariables": {
    "ASPNETCORE_URLS": "https://localhost:5001;http://localhost:5000",
    "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development"
  },
  "distributionName": ""
}

Supported Launch Profiles

Setting	Use	Default
commandName	Must be WSL2	WSL2
distributionName	Name of the distribution to run in, or "" to use the default distribution.	""
executablePath	Path to run	dotnet
commandLineArgs	Arguments to pass to executablePath	The projects output assembly.
workingDirectory	The directory in which to start executablePath	For ASP.NET Core web apps, the project folder; for .NET Core console Apps, the output folder.
environmentVariables	List of environment variables to set for executablePath.	null
launchBrowser	Whether or not to launch a browser.	false
launchUrl	Url to use for launching a browser.	null