Windows development environment

This guide explains how to prepare a Windows machine to run SPLENT.
The development environment relies on WSL, Docker Desktop, and GitHub SSH access.

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Table of contents

1. Install WSL
2. Install GNU Make and Git
3. Install Docker Desktop
4. Configure Git

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Install WSL

First install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu.

Open PowerShell and run the following command.

wsl --install

After installation, reboot your computer if required.

Once installed, you can open your Linux environment in several ways.

• Search Ubuntu in the Start Menu
• Run the wsl command from PowerShell

wsl

This opens the Linux shell where all SPLENT commands must be executed.

All SPLENT commands must run inside WSL, not in PowerShell.

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Install GNU Make and Git

A fresh WSL distribution (for example Ubuntu) does not ship GNU Make by default, and SPLENT is driven through make. Install the build tools and Git inside WSL.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y make git

Verify they are available.

make --version
git --version

Run these commands inside WSL, not in PowerShell.

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Install Docker Desktop

Download and install Docker Desktop for Windows.

https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/

After installation, enable integration with WSL.

Open Docker Desktop and navigate to the WSL integration settings.

Settings → Resources → WSL Integration

Enable integration with your Linux distribution (for example Ubuntu).

Verify Docker works inside WSL.

docker --version
docker ps

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Configure Git

Before running SPLENT, ensure that your Git configuration file exists inside WSL.

In some Windows/WSL setups, Docker may mount .gitconfig as a directory instead of a file, which causes Git to fail inside containers.

To avoid this issue, create the file manually and configure your identity.

Run these commands inside WSL.

rm -rf ~/.gitconfig
touch ~/.gitconfig
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your_email@example.com"

Verify that .gitconfig is a file.

ls -l ~/.gitconfig

It should appear as a regular file, not a directory.

Once this is done, you can continue with the SPLENT installation guide