Windows 10 Will Finally Offer Easy Access to Linux Files

Megalith

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Working with Linux files in the Windows environment is comparable to running through a field with landmines, but that will change with Windows 10’s April 2019 Update, which brings support for “accessing, viewing, and even modifying Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) files from File Explorer or via the command line.” Users simply have to enter “explorer.exe” into a Bash shell. “Use drag and drop, copy and paste them, or even open them directly in Windows applications to modify them.”

Rather than accessing these files directly, Windows runs a Plan 9 server as part of the WSL software in the background. Windows 10 has “a Windows service and driver that acts as the client and talks to the Plan9 server.” That server translates your file operations and handles Linux metadata such as file permissions, ensuring everything works properly even when you access a file with a Windows tool. But that’s just the complicated stuff that happens in the background, and you don’t have to think about it.
 
This is funny. I have had windose file systems running in my Slackware install for decades. As I do not trust NTFS, I have been know to drop to Linux to make important changes to the windose file system. ;)
 
I do not trust Linux accessing NTFS formatted Windows boot drives at all, except in read mode only. I also do not trust Windows to access Linux formatted drives, except when I am attempting to recover files from it. I prefer to use the OS that the format was designed for, unless I am attempting a file recovery.
 
just to clarify.... Windows has not left the 90's and can now access more advanced Filesystems. They are talking about being able to view files within windows10 that are within WSL
 
I do not trust Linux accessing NTFS formatted Windows boot drives at all, except in read mode only. I also do not trust Windows to access Linux formatted drives, except when I am attempting to recover files from it. I prefer to use the OS that the format was designed for, unless I am attempting a file recovery.
I have never felt the need to access Linux from windows but the other way, both the older fuse setup and the straight up NTFS drivers we have now, have never failed me.
 
I'd much rather they put NFS support back into Windows Pro. That would be more useful.
 
I'd much rather they put NFS support back into Windows Pro. That would be more useful.

It is there, I just looked so I am not certain where you are going with this. (Maybe it was removed in the past but, it is there now.)
 
It is there, I just looked so I am not certain where you are going with this. (Maybe it was removed in the past but, it is there now.)
I have seen it there as an option, but it doesn't work. To be clear, I am talking about NFS client, not server.
 
can windows run all native linux programs yet?

Erm i want to say yes to this, but really i have not tried all of them.. certainly runs docker, and kuberneties just fine.. just to clarify this is using the linux subsystem on windows 10
 
can windows run all native linux programs yet?
Erm i want to say yes to this, but really i have not tried all of them.. certainly runs docker, and kuberneties just fine.. just to clarify this is using the linux subsystem on windows 10

Linux CLI applications compiled for x86, Yes those can run for the most part. For running GUI applications - there are X Servers available for Windows - install one, direct your Linux Subsystem output to that X Server, and then you can even run windowed applications. I played around with it a little when it first came out, was able to run Linux Firefox and Libre Office. However, sound does not work (I couldn't get sound playing through the browser). I assume that trying to run OpenGL applications wouldn't work either, although I never tried.

Essentially what the Linux on Windows subsystem is meant for is allowing you to run a Linux dev environment on Windows, without using virtualization. Sure, there are Windows versions of Node, Ruby, etc but things can vary slightly across environments. It's damn nice to have access to Windows development tools plus the actual target environment on the same machine.



Since Day 1 the Linux Subsystem has had access to the entire Windows installation through a mountpoint (/mnt/c). I was aware that you could also access the Linux files from within Windows using the AppData method mentioned in the article, but wasn't aware that it wasn't recommended. Nice to have an officially supported method of doing so.
 
TrailRunner

The linux subsystem on windows is a collection of Linux apps(ubuntu), my understanding is that there is no kernel in the subsystem. Which probably explains why your apps don't have sound.. and dont all work.

As a developer myself though its awesome for ssh, playing with stuff locally and testing bash scripts.
 
TrailRunner

The linux subsystem on windows is a collection of Linux apps(ubuntu), my understanding is that there is no kernel in the subsystem. Which probably explains why your apps don't have sound.. and dont all work.

As a developer myself though its awesome for ssh, playing with stuff locally and testing bash scripts.

You're correct, the subsystem doesn't contain the Linux kernel itself - it's a wrapper for Linux system calls to native Windows system calls. Kind of like WINE, but for Windows.
 
The code for NTFS functionality in the Linux kernel came from Microsoft. Same with the Hyper-V drivers for the Linux kernel...

I do not trust Linux accessing NTFS formatted Windows boot drives at all, except in read mode only. I also do not trust Windows to access Linux formatted drives, except when I am attempting to recover files from it. I prefer to use the OS that the format was designed for, unless I am attempting a file recovery.
 
Have you checked if it's just a feature that you enable? That's what it's been like historically, but I haven't checked this particular part recently.

I'd much rather they put NFS support back into Windows Pro. That would be more useful.
 
Cool, now Windows can blow up your linux install.
Microsoft doesn't want Linux users to be left out of the fun. Windows 10 corrupted two of my hard drives last week. Only the 5th or 6th time that has happened in the last couple of years (compared to zero times with Windows 7). Fortunately, I'm extremely anal about doing backups, but, restoring 4TB of files is a gigantic pain in the butt. Just for fun, Windows 10 did it again a couple of days later.

UN9VIEI.png
 
[...]certainly runs docker[...]

I've gotten Docker running on WSL, but not the Docker daemon (which is basically required in order to do anything useful with Docker). The daemon has to run directly on Windows 10, but only after commandeering Hyper-V and breaking support for any existing VMs (IE: My current dev environment running inside Virtualbox). For this reason I haven't made the switch to WSL yet. Have you found a way around this problem?
 
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