Fix [wsl –help | more] & [wsl –help | Select-String] in PowerShell

Tux_on_winfows_logo

By default wsl outputs UTF-16LE. This causes issues when piping output to more or Select-String. This post describes a fix. TL;DR Set $env:WSL_UTF8=1

Issue

Typing:

wsl --help | more

…you see:

C
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
i
o
n
.

A
l
l

-- More  --

Fix

Run this to fix:

$env:WSL_UTF8=1

These work now:

wsl --help | more

wsl --help | Select-String "Display"

Revert back with the following:

$env:WSL_UTF8=0

Environment

systeminfo /fo csv | ConvertFrom-Csv | select OS*, System*, Hotfix* | Format-List -Property 'OS Version'
# OS Version : 10.0.19045 N/A Build 19045

$PSVersionTable
# Name                           Value
# ----                           -----
# PSVersion                      5.1.19041.2673
# PSEdition                      Desktop
# PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
# BuildVersion                   10.0.19041.2673
# CLRVersion                     4.0.30319.42000
# WSManStackVersion              3.0
# PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
# SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1

wsl --version | Select-String "WSL version"
# WSL version: 1.2.5.0

References

wsl.exe outputting unicode to stdout #4607

https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4607

wsl release with WSL_UTF8=1

https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/0.64.0

about_Character_Encoding

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_character_encoding?view=powershell-7.3

UTF-16

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16

Windows 10 Logo

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_logo_-2012%28dark_blue%29.svg

Tux Logo

Tux (mascot). (2023, April 10). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tux_(mascot)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tux_%28mascot%29#/media/File:Tux.png