Where are the files inside wsl2 physically stored?

Question

I've installed wsl2 on my windows machine and I was not able to figure out where the files are actually stored.
Note, that I don't mean that I wanna browse them inside the file explorer - I know it can be done by typing in the explorer \\wsl$\.
If I would have to guess I would say the files are stored in the same hard-drive that the os is stored.

So actually I have two related questions.

1. Where the files are stored?
2. If they are stored in the hard drive of my os, can I somehow relocate my wsl to another hard drive?

EDIT:
I was able to locate the installation path, in my machine the path is:
C:\Users\Eliran\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu20.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState

Is there a way to mount this to another location?

Answer 1

All the files are stored in a ext4.vhd files in the installation directory, which you can't mount directly onto windows as it is in ext4 (obv)

There's two ways to change the location of the above mentioned vhd file the official, tedious way and an unofficial quick and dirty way

The official tedious way

1. Export the distro to a location with wsl.exe --export <Distro> <FileName> from CMD/PowerShell
2. Import the distro to a different location with wsl.exe --import <Distro> <InstallLocation> <FileName> [Options]

The problems with this is it's quite time consuming and after you do this, pray that it exported and imported several gigabytes worth of thousands of files without any problems

The quick and dirty way

This involes an unofficial opensource WSL manager called lxrunoffline

To install it (takes like a min at max) read through the instructions by the dev here

If you installed it by manually downloading the binaries from the release page, make sure to install it to a directory in PATH, like C:\Windows

Now the process is simple as lxrunoffline move -n <distroname> -d <destination-folder>

For example lxrunoffline move -n Ubuntu-20.04 -d G:\wsl\

Hope I helped

Edit: typo

Answer 2

This is an answer to your last question: use symbolic links

• open command prompt as administrator
• shut down wsl vm using wsl --shutdown
• change folder to C:\Users\Eliran\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu20.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\
• move the LocalState folder to another location like Z:\wsl\Ubuntu\
• create symbolic link with mklink /J LocalState Z:\WSL\Ubuntu\LocalState

I would also edit/create the .wslconfig file from your user folder to move the swap file to the folder where you store your WSL vm's and maybe edit/add options for CPU cores and RAM assignment

[wsl2]
memory=4GB
processors=2
swap=1GB
swapFile=Z:\\WSL\\swap.vhdx

• memory is the maximum amount your ram that WSL will use;
• processors is the alocated cores to your WSL vm;
• swap is the size of the swap file;
• swapFile is the location of your swap and to my knowledge is used by all WSL vm's; notice the double slashes in the path, they are mandatory for the path.

Start your WSL VM as you normally would.

Answer 3

I executed these commands in PowerShell to move my Ubuntu distro from C: to drive D:\wsl-ubuntu :

PS C:\Users\smarc> mkdir D:\wsl-ubuntu  (create new location)
PS C:\Users\smarc> wsl -l -v            (list wsl distros)
NAME                   STATE           VERSION
Ubuntu                 Running         2
PS C:\Users\smarc> wsl --shutdown
PS C:\Users\smarc> wsl -l -v            (verify if is stopped)
NAME                   STATE           VERSION
Ubuntu                 Stopped         2
PS C:\Users\smarc> wsl --export Ubuntu ubuntu.tar  
PS C:\Users\smarc> wsl --unregister Ubuntu
PS C:\Users\smarc> wsl --import Ubuntu D:\wsl-ubuntu\ .\ubuntu.tar --version 2

and reboot the computer at the end.

The only problem I have is that the default user when I started the Ubuntu application is the root. I need to execute $ su sergio to enter in my personal user.

You can delete the ubuntu.tar at the end of process.

#edit 2021-04-13: As pointed out in the comments, I had forgotten the "--export" command.