Skip to main content

wsl

WSl Filesystem​

We recommend against working across operating systems with your files, unless you have a specific reason for doing so. For the fastest performance speed, store your files in the WSL file system if you are working in a Linux command line (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, etc). If you're working in a Windows command line (PowerShell, Command Prompt), store your files in the Windows file system.

For example, when storing your WSL project files:

  • Use the Linux file system root directory: /home/<user name>/Project
  • Not the Windows file system root directory: /mnt/c/Users/<user name>/Project$ or C:\Users\<user name>\Project

When you see /mnt/ in the file path of a WSL command line, it means that you are working from a mounted drive. So the Windows file system C:\ drive (C:\Users\<user name>\Project) will look like this when mounted in a WSL command line: /mnt/c/Users/<user name>/Project$. It is possible to store your project files on a mounted drive, but your performance speed will improve if you store them directly on the \\wsl$ drive.

Viewing files in the file explorer​

You can view the directory where your files are stored by opening the Windows File Explorer from the command line, using:

explorer.exe .

To view all of your available Linux distributions and their root file systems in Windows File explorer, in the address bar enter: \\wsl$

Cross-OS commands​

Running WSL from powershell​

Run Linux binaries from the Windows Command Prompt (CMD) or PowerShell using wsl <command> (or wsl.exe <command>).

C:\temp> wsl ls -la
<- contents of C:\temp ->

Running windows apps from WSL​

WSL can run Windows tools directly from the WSL command line using [tool-name].exe. For example, notepad.exe.

Windows tools must include the file extension, match the file case, and be executable. Non-executables including batch scripts. CMD native commands like dir can be run with cmd.exe /C command.

For example, list the contents of your Windows files system C:\ directory, by entering:

cmd.exe /C dir

Parameters are passed to the Windows binary unmodified. As an example, the following command will open C:\temp\foo.txt in notepad.exe:

notepad.exe "C:\temp\foo.txt"