default_domain = "local"#

This option only applies to the GUI. For the equivalent option in the standalone mux server, see default_mux_server_domain

When starting the GUI (not using the serial or connect subcommands), by default wakterm will set the built-in "local" domain as the default multiplexing domain.

The "local" domain represents processes that are spawned directly on the mux host, not necessarily on the human or client machine using wakterm.

In the common case of starting the GUI normally, that means processes on the same machine as the GUI. If a Windows GUI is attached to a Linux mux server, that remote mux's "local" domain means processes running on Linux, not on Windows.

The built-in "local" domain is the default out-of-the-box GUI experience. Shared multi-client sessions happen when multiple clients attach to the same explicit unix, SSH, or TLS multiplexing domain.

Windows users, particularly those who use WSL, may wish to override the default domain to instead use a particular WSL distribution so that wakterm launches directly into a Linux shell rather than having to manually invoke wsl.exe. Using a WslDomain for this has the advantage that wakterm can then use shell integration to track the current directory inside WSL and use it when splitting new panes or spawning new tabs.

For example, if:

; wsl -l -v
  NAME            STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu-18.04    Running         1

then wakterm will by default create a WslDomain with the name "WSL:Ubuntu-18.04" and if I set my config like this:

config.default_domain = 'WSL:Ubuntu-18.04'

then when wakterm starts up, it will open with a shell running inside that Ubuntu distribution rather than using the default cmd or powershell.

While these examples are WSL-centric, default_domain will accept the name of any of the available multiplexing domains.