docker / docker/cli

Request: Ability to name preferred WSL environment

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#6,224 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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kind/feature status/0-triage
Dominant language
Go
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Forks
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Avg merge
1d 15h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Description

Currently, Docker Desktop blindly applies the default WSL environment. However, VPN's and other components are often incompatible with Docker's need for WSL v2. So the user ends up with multiple environments.

You already select a predictable name for this distribution, docker-desktop. Please select this named distro, instead of following the default environment.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/basic-commands#run-a-specific-linux-distribution-from-powershell-or-cmd

Better yet, allow the user to name a custom environment, in case they want to replace docker-desktop with yet another WSL distribution.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing how the Docker CLI selects its WSL distribution and read the linked WSL documentation for running a specific distribution. Define whether the change should select docker-desktop only or support a user-configured name, then verify that the chosen environment is used without relying on the default WSL distribution.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
docker
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
32/100

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