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LaTeX Integration with WSL
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Starting with version 3.7, SumatraPDF can preview LaTeX documents that you edit and compile inside WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). It fully supports source-to-PDF and PDF-to-source navigation, just as it does in an all-Windows setup.

How Previewing Works #

When you compile a .tex file, most LaTeX tools can also generate a SyncTeX file (.synctex or .synctex.gz) alongside the PDF. This file records which line of the source corresponds to each piece of text in the PDF. SumatraPDF uses this information to provide:
  • Forward search: jump from a line in the source file to the corresponding location in the PDF.
  • Inverse search: jump from a location in the PDF back to the corresponding line in the source file.
To trigger forward search from a WSL terminal, run:
/mnt/c/path/to/SumatraPDF.exe -forward-search "<path to .tex file>" <line> "<path to .pdf file>"
You can try this command manually to see how it works. SumatraPDF will open the PDF (if necessary) and highlight the location corresponding to the specified source line.
In practice, you will usually configure your editor to run this command automatically, supplying the file paths and line number for you.
The exact setup depends on your editor. For example, if you use VS Code with the WSL Remote extension, you will first need a LaTeX language server. One option is TexLab:
Once installed, add the following settings to settings.json:
{
  "texlab.forwardSearch.executable": "/mnt/c/Users/path/to/SumatraPDF.exe",
  "texlab.forwardSearch.args": [
    "-forward-search",
    "\\\\wsl.localhost\\Ubuntu\\%f",
    "%l",
    "\\\\wsl.localhost\\Ubuntu\\%p"
  ]
}
Note that TexLab launches SumatraPDF directly from Windows rather than through a WSL shell. As a result, file paths must be written using the \\wsl.localhost\<DISTRO>\... form .
After configuring TexLab, open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and run LaTeX: Forward Search while editing a .tex file. TexLab will substitute the correct file paths and line number and invoke SumatraPDF automatically.
Inverse search is configured in SumatraPDF. You specify a command that SumatraPDF will execute whenever you double-click a location in the PDF.
To configure it:
  1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+K).
  2. Select Set Inverse Search Command Line.
  3. Enter the command that should open your editor at a specific file and line number.
The command should have the general form:
"executable" [options] [arguments]
Whenever you double-click a location in the PDF, SumatraPDF substitutes the appropriate file and line information and executes the command. In practice, this is most often used to open (or focus) your editor at the corresponding source location, but the command can in principle launch any program that can make use of a file path and line number.
For VS Code with WSL Remote, the following command opens a file at a specific line:
"C:\Users\path\to\Code.exe" --remote wsl+Ubuntu --goto "<path to .tex file>:<line>"
It is a good idea to test this command manually first. It should open (or focus) VS Code, connect to the specified WSL distribution, and navigate to the requested file and line.
Once it works, configure SumatraPDF to use it by replacing the file path and line number with %f and %l:
InverseSearchCmdLine = "C:\Users\path\to\Code.exe" --remote wsl+Ubuntu --goto "%f:%l"
Whenever you double-click a location in the PDF, SumatraPDF will replace %f and %l with the corresponding source file and line number and execute the command.
In inverse search, SumatraPDF returns file paths in a WSL-compatible Unix format (for example /home/project/doc.tex or /mnt/project/doc.tex). This is an important change in version 3.7: earlier versions did not correctly handle WSL-style paths found in SyncTeX data, which often led to broken or unusable links in WSL-based workflows. With the new behavior, WSL-aware editors can correctly resolve and open the corresponding source files, as shown above with VS Code’s remote integration.
SumatraPDF documentation
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LaTeX Integration with WSL
md