Use a physical drive as WSL rootfs when importing
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- Dominant language
- C++
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Description
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
In order to increase performance and save space on my OS drive, I'd like to be able to use another physical drive instead of a vhdx file on my main OS drive.
Describe the solution you'd like
The import and export functions for WSL are great! I'd like to propose to be able to pass a reference to a drive (or partition on a drive) to the import function which would then unpack the given vhdx file to the physical drive and use it as the rootfs for WSL.
Describe alternatives you've considered
I looked into just storing the vhdx on a seperate drive. This works for keeping my main OS drive clean but then I can't browse the filesystem when mounting it in another OS (i.e. in a dual boot system where I would like to mount the WSL fs).
Additional context
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by examining the WSL import and export functions and how they currently unpack and use a vhdx file. Investigate the requirements for using a physical drive or partition as the rootfs, including the dual-boot mounting scenario. Done means the requested drive or partition can be supplied during import and used as the WSL rootfs.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- cpp
- Domain
- operating-systems
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100