// HACKER NEWS — CYBERSECURITY
Show HN: NSL – WSL for Linux
nsl gives a Linux host persistent Linux machines, as WSL does for Windows. Each machine is a whole distro with its own packages and services. It runs as a systemd-nspawn container in one small VM, starts when you use it, and works in your files.
nsl opens a login shell in your default machine, in the directory you were in. nsl run runs one command and returns its exit status.
Your $HOME, /run/media/USER and /mnt appear at /mnt/host. Inside, you keep your username, UID and GID, and passwordless sudo.
A server listening in a machine is reachable at the same port on host 127.0.0.1. Wayland applications open windows on your desktop.
Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS Stream, Arch, openSUSE Tumbleweed and Leap. Rebuilt weekly, and verified against the signed Frostyard publishing workflow before use.
--isolated gives a machine a VM of its own, with no access to host files, desktop or host actions, for software you do not trust.
nsl runs as your user. It installs no host packages and changes no device permissions, groups or sudoers.
Check the host, install nsl and create your first machine.
One VM, many machines, and what a machine may touch on the host.
Every command, every setting in nsl.conf, and every published image.