How to run WSL bash functions from CMD

Question

In Windows cmd you can run wsl commands just by typing:

> wsl pwd
/mnt/c/Users/user/

But when I try to run functions that are stored in ~/.bashrc file, nothing is happening:

> wsl test

>

While in wsl function is working fine:

> test
/mnt/c/Users/user/
>

@close: I can't see why this question is closed because of ` not about programming or software development.` Bash scripting is still programming. Otherwise, you could close many more questions. — jeb
– jeb, Commented Jul 19 at 10:56
Please read in bash manual the chapter 6.2 Bash Startup Files. The file ~/.bashrc is executed by bash only on being Invoked as an interactive non-login shell. That is not the case on running from Windows Command Prompt Windows Subsystem for Linux and execute a command like bash with the option -c to execute something by bash in the Linux environment. — Mofi
– Mofi, Commented Jul 19 at 10:57
BTW: test is a Bourne Shell Builtin command. It is not advisable to name a function test in any shell script file including .bashrc. — Mofi
– Mofi, Commented Jul 19 at 11:21

jeb · Accepted Answer · 2025-07-19 10:50:44Z

3

It's probably because your.bashrc exits early when it's not started interactively. You will find something like this in the first lines.

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
case $- in
    *i*) ;;
      *) return;;
esac

I would recommend extracting the test function from .bashrc to a separate file.

answered Jul 19 at 10:50

jeb

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1 Comment

Thanks, I will put functions in separate .sh files