WSL Regular Maintenance (Monthly)

Glad you’re seeing the performance benefits! Here are the essential WSL maintenance commands for your development workflow:

Regular Maintenance (Monthly)

1. Update Ubuntu System

Update package lists and upgrade installed packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Clean up unnecessary packages

sudo apt autoremove -y
sudo apt autoclean

2. Node.js/npm Updates

Update npm itself

npm install -g npm@latest

Check for outdated global packages

npm outdated -g

Update global packages

npm update -g

3. Clean Up Development Files

Clean npm cache

npm cache clean --force

In your project directories, clean node_modules when needed

(You’ll do this per project as needed)

rm -rf node_modules && npm install

Occasional Maintenance (Quarterly)

4. WSL System Updates

Run this in Windows PowerShell (as admin)

wsl --update
wsl --shutdown

Then restart WSL

5. Disk Space Check

Check disk usage in your projects

du -sh ~/projects/*

Check overall WSL disk usage

df -h

Pro Tips for Your Workflow:

Create a Maintenance Script

Create ~/maintenance.sh

nano ~/maintenance.sh

Add this content:

#!/bin/bash

echo "🔄 Updating Ubuntu packages..."

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt autoremove -y

echo "🔄 Updating npm..."

npm install -g npm@latest

echo "🧹 Cleaning npm cache..."

npm cache clean --force

echo "✅ Maintenance complete!"

Make it executable:

chmod +x ~/maintenance.sh

Run monthly:

~/maintenance.sh

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Keep WSL Running Efficiently

If WSL feels slow, restart it:

In PowerShell:

wsl --shutdown

Then reopen your WSL terminal

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Check WSL memory usage:

free -h

Warning Signs to Watch For:

• Slow npm installs → Clean cache, restart WSL
• “Disk full” errors → Clean old node_modules, check du -sh ~/*
• Git issues → Usually resolved with WSL restart

Most of the time, WSL just works! The monthly system update is really the only must-do maintenance for your development setup.