Editor

Required

neovim wget fd fzf ripgrep python python-pip python-neovim nodejs npm

Optional

wl-clipboard xsel tree-sitter tree-sitter-cli lua luarocks lazyjj

For easy file editing, I’m going to use neovim, so editing is as simple as calling nvim on the file.

Note

I will sometimes install emacs (although I mainly use nvim nowadays), but in order for me to not bite into my desk, I will also need my doomed config for that, which means it is a more elaborate setup.

General tools

It is always a good idea to have wget, ripgrep, fd and fzf installed, but with my Neovim config it’s even more important, as Telescope and other plugins make heavy use of them.

Additional tools

NodeJS Some LSPs require node. Installing it now will make sure WSL doesn't pick up a Windows node/npm executable.

Python Some plugins require Python 3, so we're also going to install that.

Lua If we want to edit the Neovim config, we also need tools for Lua, namely `luarocks`.

Tree-sitter

As my Neovim config also includes Tree-sitter support, you need to have some kind of C/C++ compiler available. Normally Arch Linux on WSL2 should come with gcc. The tree-sitter binary isn’t required normally, but it’s nice to have available just in case (provided by tree-sitter-cli).

lazyjj

As I use jj, I also want to install lazyjj, as it provides some integration for AstroNvim.

Clipboard integration

For Neovim’s clipboard integration, you kind of have to decide whether or not you want native clipboard integration with Wayland/X11. As a rough measure, you probably want clipboard integration over Windows if you use e.g. WezTerm installed on Windows to access WSL and you probably want native clipboard integration for Wayland/X11 if you use an installation of a terminal emulator from out of WSL.

Note

This doesn’t really seem to be the case anymore, as I currently use ghostty from within WSL (see the GUI chapter), having no “native” solution installed, but rather win32yank on the Windows side, with it on my WSL PATH and copy/pasting works like a blast.

Clipboard via Windows

Simply install win32yank on the Windows side. As Windows paths are normally appended to the WSL path, it is available to nvim within WSL, if you have it on your Windows path. To simplify this, simply install it using scoop

scoop.exe install win32yank

Native clipboard

Install both wl-clipboard, as well as xsel. I use Wayland primarily, but it doesn’t hurt to have both available, as Neovim checks for wl-clipboard first anyway (see :help clipboard).

Caution

If you follow the steps for Xonsh in the next chapter, you might choose to remove the Windows PATH from Xonsh’s $PATH.