Release Notes for Bug Fix: Misidentification of Docker Containers as WSL Distributions

Bug Fix Overview This release resolves an issue where Docker containers running on WSL2 backends were incorrectly identified as WSL distributions by Git Credential Manager (GCM). The issue caused GCM to invoke Windows-specific tools, such as powershell.exe, which are not available inside Linux-native Docker containers, resulting in failed Git operations.

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Details of the Fix

1. Improved Environment Detection :

• Added logic to differentiate between actual WSL distributions and containerized environments running on WSL2.

• GCM now inspects /proc/1/cgroup to detect Docker or containerized environments and bypasses WSL-specific logic when running inside a container.

2. New Environment Variable : GCM_DISABLE_WSL_SUPPORT

• Introduced the GCM_DISABLE_WSL_SUPPORT environment variable to allow users to explicitly disable WSL detection.

• This ensures that GCM operates in a purely Linux-native mode, avoiding unnecessary attempts to invoke Windows interop tools.

3. Default Behavior Updates :

• If the environment is ambiguous (e.g., /proc/version contains WSL2 strings but the environment is containerized), GCM defaults to Linux-native tools rather than Windows-specific functionality.

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How to Use

• To ensure that WSL-specific logic is disabled in environments like Docker containers, set the following environment variable:

export GCM_DISABLE_WSL_SUPPORT=1

• This explicitly forces GCM to use Linux-native tools for credential management.

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Acknowledgments
This fix addresses issues encountered by users running Docker containers with desktop environments or similar workloads on WSL2.

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Known Issues

git-ecosystem#1813

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