microsoft / microsoft/WSL

WSL2 should have a command to show/move where distros are stored on the filesystem

Open
#9,614 5 comments 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
feature
Dominant language
C++
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Description

**Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.**
Problem: No way to easily figure out where WSL2 distros are stored, and no easy way to change their location.
Futhermore, there's no easy way to see WSL2 distro information/metadata.
`wsl --list --verbose` has no filesystem info.

Moving a distro's data is often encountered when installing Docker Desktop for Windows.
i.e. we want to move the `ext4.vhdx` to another drive with more space than `C:/`.

**Describe the solution you'd like**
Introduce two commands/options:
```bash
wsl --info # produces all metadata regarding a certain distro, i.e. where it is stored on disk, size, etc.
wsl --move # e.g. wsl --move docker-desktop-data D:/docker-desktop-data
```

**Describe alternatives you've considered**
Alternative:
`--info`: Googling it every time.
`--move`: Googling how to do this every time, exporting and importing the disk data with `wsl --export` and `wsl --import`.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reading the existing command paths for `wsl --list --verbose`, `wsl --export`, and `wsl --import`. Determine how distro metadata and data locations are currently exposed, then define and test the behavior for `wsl --info ` and `wsl --move `. Done means both commands provide the requested information and move distro data as described.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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