starred/terminal
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/microsoft/terminal.git synced 2026-02-04 05:35:20 +00:00
Code Issues 19.0k Packages Projects Releases 20 Wiki Activity

Set default WSL path to distro $HOME #4588

New Issue
Closed
opened 2026-01-30 23:51:20 +00:00 by claunia · 14 comments
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:20 +00:00
Owner
Copy Link

Originally created by @mveril on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019).

Set default WSL path to distro $HOME

The default path for WSL distros is currently the Windows user path (%USERPROFILE%) but it's may be better to set it to the distro $HOME.

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

I don't know if it's possible, but ideally in the WslDistroGenerator.cpp the command line should be conditionally set to "wsl.exe -d " + distName if startingDirectory is set in profile.json, "wsl.exe ~ -d " + distName otherwise.
Another possibility is to add a boolean setting UseWSLHome on the wsl profile.json
Thank you.

Originally created by @mveril on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019). # Set default WSL path to distro $HOME The default path for WSL distros is currently the Windows user path (`%USERPROFILE%`) but it's may be better to set it to the distro `$HOME`. # Proposed technical implementation details (optional) I don't know if it's possible, but ideally in the `WslDistroGenerator.cpp` the command line should be conditionally set to `"wsl.exe -d " + distName` if `startingDirectory` is set in `profile.json`, `"wsl.exe ~ -d " + distName` otherwise. Another possibility is to add a boolean setting `UseWSLHome` on the wsl `profile.json` Thank you.
claunia added the Issue-FeatureArea-SettingsResolution-DuplicateProduct-Terminal labels 2026-01-30 23:51:20 +00:00
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:21 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@Biswa96 commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019):

Two ways:

  1. Add this command in .bashrc file cd ~
    Or
  2. Run this command line wsl -d Ubuntu sh -c "cd ~;exec $SHELL"
@Biswa96 commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019): Two ways: 1. Add this command in `.bashrc` file `cd ~` Or 2. Run this command line `wsl -d Ubuntu sh -c "cd ~;exec $SHELL"`
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:21 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@mveril commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019):

I already set "commandline" : "wsl.exe ~ -d Ubuntu" in my profile.json and it works, but it's a workaround and a standard method should be better.

@mveril commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019): I already set `"commandline" : "wsl.exe ~ -d Ubuntu"` in my `profile.json` and it works, but it's a workaround and a standard method should be better.
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:21 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@leoniDEV commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019):

As said in this issue, you can set the startingDirectory to //wsl$/distro/home/username

@leoniDEV commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019): As said in [this issue](https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/2849), you can set the `startingDirectory` to `//wsl$/distro/home/username`
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:22 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@mveril commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019):

Ok it's another good workaround
Thank you @leoniDEV

@mveril commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019): Ok it's another good workaround Thank you @leoniDEV
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:22 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@leoniDEV commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019):

Anyway I agree with you that the default startingDirectory for WSL should be the $HOME of the WSL user and not the %USERPROFILE% of the Windows user

@leoniDEV commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019): Anyway I agree with you that the default `startingDirectory` for WSL should be the `$HOME `of the WSL user and not the `%USERPROFILE%` of the Windows user
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:22 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@sivaramn commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019):

Anyway I agree with you that the default startingDirectory for WSL should be the $HOME of the WSL user and not the %USERPROFILE% of the Windows user

Agreed, at least going by the principle of DWIM. if we're launching WSL, it should default to normal *nices behaviour of logging into users home directory within wsl, not some other directory

@sivaramn commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019): > Anyway I agree with you that the default `startingDirectory` for WSL should be the `$HOME `of the WSL user and not the `%USERPROFILE%` of the Windows user Agreed, at least going by the principle of DWIM. if we're launching WSL, it should default to normal *nices behaviour of logging into users home directory *within* wsl, not some other directory
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:22 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@carlos-zamora commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019):

Is this the default directory for WSL distros when opening with ConHost?

@carlos-zamora commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019): Is this the default directory for WSL distros when opening with ConHost?
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:22 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@sivaramn commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019):

Is this the default directory for WSL distros when opening with ConHost?

Don't understand. If I login into wsl using putty, mintty or any other terminal software, the shell prompt comes at /home/<userid> that you created at first install of wsl.

In MS terminal, the default seems to be /mnt/c/users/profile or something. This is generally not the default way

@sivaramn commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019): > > > Is this the default directory for WSL distros when opening with ConHost? Don't understand. If I login into wsl using putty, mintty or any other terminal software, the shell prompt comes at `/home/<userid>` that you created at first install of wsl. In MS terminal, the default seems to be `/mnt/c/users/profile` or something. This is generally not the default way
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:23 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@mveril commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019):

Is this the default directory for WSL distros when opening with ConHost?

Don't understand. If I login into wsl using putty, mintty or any other terminal software, the shell prompt comes at /home/<userid> that you created at first install of wsl.

In MS terminal, the default seems to be /mnt/c/users/profile or something. This is generally not the default way

When we launch wsl.exe without ~ argument it's run WSL at the working directory and when we add ~ in the argument list of WSL it's launched at the distro $HOME (/home/<userid>) directory.
If we launch <distro>.exe of a distro downloaded from the store or when we open the distro app from the start menu the directory is also set to $HOME.
I hope I answered to your question @carlos-zamora

@mveril commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019): > > Is this the default directory for WSL distros when opening with ConHost? > > Don't understand. If I login into wsl using putty, mintty or any other terminal software, the shell prompt comes at `/home/<userid>` that you created at first install of wsl. > > In MS terminal, the default seems to be `/mnt/c/users/profile` or something. This is generally not the default way When we launch `wsl.exe` without `~` argument it's run WSL at the working directory and when we add `~` in the argument list of WSL it's launched at the distro $HOME (`/home/<userid>`) directory. If we launch `<distro>.exe` of a distro downloaded from the store or when we open the distro app from the start menu the directory is also set to $HOME. I hope I answered to your question @carlos-zamora
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:23 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@DHowett-MSFT commented on GitHub (Oct 23, 2019):

It looks like you've got a workaround here. For the rest, we'll track them in /dup #878 and #592

@DHowett-MSFT commented on GitHub (Oct 23, 2019): It looks like you've got a workaround here. For the rest, we'll track them in /dup #878 and #592
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:23 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@ghost commented on GitHub (Oct 23, 2019):

Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists on this Issue Tracker. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread. Thanks for your report!

@ghost commented on GitHub (Oct 23, 2019): Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists on this Issue Tracker. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread. Thanks for your report!
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:23 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@chihab commented on GitHub (Sep 8, 2021):

From Terminal Settings (ctrl + ,):

image

Starting directory should be: \wsl$\YOUR_DISTRIB\home\YOUR_USERNAME

You can access the path in Explorer.

@chihab commented on GitHub (Sep 8, 2021): From Terminal Settings (ctrl + ,): ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/196852/132467618-706f18c0-10c0-4706-8e2b-d3e5ca734ba2.png) Starting directory should be: \\wsl$\YOUR_DISTRIB\home\YOUR_USERNAME You can access the path in Explorer.
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:23 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@aress31 commented on GitHub (Mar 24, 2022):

Well, I am facing the same issue, and I launch my VM directly via the wsl command rather than opening a Terminal Profile, there is the workaround of typing wsl --cd ~ but maybe this startDirectory option could be added to wsl.config to not pollute my .bashrc.

@aress31 commented on GitHub (Mar 24, 2022): Well, I am facing the same issue, and I launch my VM directly via the `wsl` command rather than opening a `Terminal Profile`, there is the workaround of typing `wsl --cd ~` but maybe this `startDirectory` option could be added to `wsl.config` to not pollute my `.bashrc`.
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:51:24 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@caioquirino commented on GitHub (Apr 8, 2024):

In my case for Tabby Terminal I had to set it to:
\\wsl.localhost\<distro>\home\<user>

@caioquirino commented on GitHub (Apr 8, 2024): In my case for Tabby Terminal I had to set it to: `\\wsl.localhost\<distro>\home\<user>`
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Branch/Tag Specified
Branches Tags
Labels
Clear labels
⛺ Reserved
A11yCO
A11yMAS
A11ySev1
A11ySev2
A11ySev3
A11yTTValidated
A11yUsable
A11yVoiceAccess
A11yWCAG
Area-Accessibility
Area-AtlasEngine
Area-AzureShell
Area-Build
Area-Build
Area-Chat
Area-CmdPal
Area-CodeHealth
Area-Commandline
Area-CookedRead
Area-DefApp
Area-Extensibility
Area-Fonts
Area-GroupPolicy
Area-i18n
Area-Input
Area-Interaction
Area-Interop
Area-Localization
Area-Output
Area-Performance
Area-Portable
Area-Quality
Area-Remoting
Area-Rendering
Area-Schema
Area-Server
Area-Settings
Area-SettingsUI
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-Suggestions
Area-Suggestions
Area-TerminalConnection
Area-TerminalControl
Area-Theming
Area-UserInterface
Area-VT
Area-Windowing
Area-WPFControl
AutoMerge
Blocking-Ingestion
Culprit-Centennial
Culprit-WinUI
Disability-All
Disability-Blind
Disability-LowVision
Disability-Mobility
External-Blocked-WinUI3
Fixed
Gathering-Data
good first issue
HCL-E+D
HCL-WindowsTerminal
Help Wanted
Impact-Compatibility
Impact-Compliance
Impact-Correctness
Impact-Visual
In-PR
InclusionBacklog
InclusionBacklog-Windows TerminalWin32
InclusionCommitted-202206
Issue-Bug
Issue-Docs
Issue-Feature
Issue-Feature
Issue-Question
Issue-Samples
Issue-Scenario
Issue-Task
Needs-Attention
Needs-Author-Feedback
Needs-Bisect
Needs-Discussion
Needs-Repro
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Triage
No-Recent-Activity
Priority-0
Priority-1
Priority-2
Priority-3
Product-Cmd.exe
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Conhost
Product-Conpty
Product-Meta
Product-Powershell
Product-Terminal
Product-WSL
pull-request
Mirrored from GitHub Pull Request
 Resolution-Answered
Resolution-By-Design
Resolution-Duplicate
Resolution-External
Resolution-Fix-Available
Resolution-Fix-Committed
Resolution-No-Repro
Resolution-Won't-Fix
Severity-Blocking
Severity-Crash
Severity-DataLoss
spam
this-will-be-a-breaking-change
Tracking-External
WindowsTerminal_Win32
Work-Item
zAskModeBug
zInbox-Bug
No Label Area-Settings Issue-Feature Product-Terminal Resolution-Duplicate
Milestone
No items
No Milestone
Projects
Clear projects
No project
Assignees
Clear assignees
claunia
No Assignees
1 Participants
Notifications
Due Date
No due date set.
Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: starred/terminal#4588
Delete Branch "%!s()"

Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?