~/etc/wsl.conf metadata just won't stick

[hdevilbiss]

Environment

Windows build number:  Win32NT 10.0.18363.0 Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.18363.0
Your Distribution version: Release: 20.04
Whether the issue is on WSL 2 and/or WSL 1: Linux version 4.4.0-18362-Microsoft (Microsoft@Microsoft.com) (gcc version 5.4.0 (GCC) ) #1049-Microsoft Thu Aug 14 12:01:00 PST 2020

Steps to reproduce

Content of ~/etc/wsl.conf

~ > cat etc/wsl.conf
[automount]
enabled = true
options = metadata,umask=22,fmask=11
mountFsTab = false

Restart LxssManager, and then check whether /mnt/e has metadata - no, it does not

~ > cd /mnt/e
e > mount -l
E:\ on /mnt/e type drvfs (rw,noatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,case=off)

Trying to chmod - does not work

~ > cd /mnt/e/roots/bedrock-sites/roots-example.com/trellis
trellis > chmod -v 600 .vault_pass
mode of '.vault_pass' changed from 0777 (rwxrwxrwx) to 0600 (rw-------)
trellis > stat --format '%a' .vault_pass
777

Unmount and remount /mnt/e, then check for metadata - yes, it has metadata

~ > sudo umount /mnt/e
~ > sudo mount -t drvfs E: /mnt/e -o metadata
E: on /mnt/e type drvfs (rw,relatime,metadata,case=off)
~ > 

Now I can chmod successfully, but only with sudo chmod

~ > cd /mnt/e/roots/bedrock-sites/roots-example.com/trellis
trellis > chmod -v 600 .vault_pass
chmod: changing permissions of '.vault_pass': Operation not permitted
failed to change mode of '.vault_pass' from 0777 (rwxrwxrwx) to 0600 (rw-------)
trellis > sudo chmod -v 600 .vault_pass
mode of '.vault_pass' changed from 0777 (rwxrwxrwx) to 0600 (rw-------)
trellis > stat --format '%a' .vault_pass
600

Expected behavior

I expect that after setting up wsl.conf as below, which seemed to be the conclusion from Issue #81, the command chmod can be used to set permissions metadata for files without needing to manually unmount and remount my hard drive with metadata.

[automount]
enabled = true
options = "metadata"
mountFsTab = false

Actual behavior

chmod will not work unless I manually unmount and remount the drive, every single time that I restart the WSL service.

> sudo umount /mnt/c
> sudo mount -t drvfs C: /mnt/c -o metadata

I'm very sorry if I missed something from automatically-configuring-wsl or chmod-chown-wsl-improvements. I have been stuck here for a few days.

[DHowett]

wsl.conf goes in /etc, not ~/etc. 😄

[hdevilbiss]

Dustin L. Howett (@DHowett) Thank you, sure do love an easy fix.

Steps to fix:

cd /etc
sudo -s

Enter your sudo password, then open or create the wsl.conf file.

nano wsl.conf

CTRL X, y, enter to exit nano, then restart the linux distribution, and check that the drives have what you want.

wsl --terminate Ubuntu
wsl.exe
mount -l

Yep, this looks good:

E:\ on /mnt/e type drvfs (rw,noatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=22,fmask=11,metadata,case=off)