microsoft / microsoft/WSL

Easy way to move image/use old image

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#8,156 8 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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feature
Dominant language
C++
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

I recently had to reinstall windows and came upon this frustrating design of wsl. There is no way to use old ext4 file. I have to install new ubuntu, export that image in order to change it's location (my previous Ubuntu is very large) then overwrite new ext file with my old file.

PS I don't want my image to be in default location to not lose it when reinstalling windows.

Same thing for docker and their image(s) - data and desktop-data - why can't I set defeault locations during install or use old ones - it's just too much work to set it all up.

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 reviewing WSL's current image storage, import, and relocation behavior, then read the existing discussion on this issue. Done would mean defining and implementing a supported way to choose image locations during setup and reuse existing WSL or Docker image data after reinstalling Windows.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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