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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.
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.