When I start bash on Windows Subsystem for Linux, it drops me in the directory
/mnt/c/Users/<username>
When I ls this directory, I see the directories Desktop, Documents, etc. that I can see are in C:\Users\<username> using the Windows File Explorer. Since this is where the bash program started, I expected this is my home directory, but when I type either cd or cd ~ I am brought to
/home/<username>
which contains my .bashrc, .profile etc. file which I would expect to find in my home directory in a Linux box. Moreover, entering cd ../.. from here I can see the directories bin, etc and so on, again as expected on a Linux box.
I have two questions regarding all this:
- What exactly is
/mnt/c/Users/<username>compared withC:\Users\<username>? It seems they are one in the same—so what is/mnt/c/? - How can I view the files in
/home/<username>using the Windows File Explorer? Not that I'd really ever want to—I'm just trying to get a feel for how Windows is organizing this Subsystem for Linux thing.
Best Answer
In the latest versions [2020], the file system is accessed from:
Previously, as of 2018, The current path is related to which distribution you have installed from the Microsoft Store rather than one global path; for Ubuntu, it was located at:
Other distributions should be (to be confirmed) in a similar location under their respective folders within: