wslu tools report errors when automount root is quoted in wsl.conf

[mkielar]

Background Information:

• Windows Version: Windows 11 Pro 21H2
• Windows Build: 22000.1042
• WSL: fedoraremix running on WSL1
• Version: 36.0.5
• Output from wsl --version:

  wsl --version
  WSL version: 0.66.2.0
  Kernel version: 5.15.57.1
  WSLg version: 1.0.42
  MSRDC version: 1.2.3401
  Direct3D version: 1.606.4
  DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
  Windows version: 10.0.22000.1042
  

• Output from dnf info wslu:

  Installed Packages
  Name         : wslu
  Version      : 4.0.0
  Release      : 1
  Architecture : noarch
  Size         : 251 k
  Source       : wslu-4.0.0-1.src.rpm
  Repository   : @System
  From repo    : copr:copr.fedorainfracloud.org:wslutilities:wslu
  (truncated for brevity)
  

Describe the bug
When the root property contains a quoted value in /etc/wsl.conf, wslu tools show errors when ran, such as below:

→ wslupath --help
/usr/bin/wslupath: line 207: "/"/c/Windows/System32/reg.exe: No such file or directory
/usr/bin/wslupath: line 207: "/"/c/Windows/System32/reg.exe: No such file or directory
wslupath - Part of wslu, a collection of utilities for Linux Subsystem for Windows (WSL)
Usage: wslupath [-dOr] [-D|-A|-T|-S|-W|-s|-su|-H|-P|...NAME...]
wslupath [-h|-v|-R]

For more help for wslupath, please use the command `man wslupath` or visit the following site: https://wslutiliti.es/wslu/man/wslupath.html.
For overall help, you can use the command `man wslu` or visite the following site: https://wslutiliti.es/wslu.

→ wslact --help
/usr/bin/wslact: line 207: "/"/c/Windows/System32/reg.exe: No such file or directory
/usr/bin/wslact: line 207: "/"/c/Windows/System32/reg.exe: No such file or directory
wslact - Part of wslu, a collection of utilities for Linux Subsystem for Windows (WSL)
Usage: wslact COMMAND ...

For more help for wslact, please use the command `man wslact` or visit the following site: https://wslutiliti.es/wslu/man/wslact.html.
For overall help, you can use the command `man wslu` or visite the following site: https://wslutiliti.es/wslu.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Configure /etc/wsl.conf like this:

   [automount]
   root = "/"
   options = "metadata"
   

   Make sure the value of the root property is wrapped in " quotes.
2. Run wslact --help
3. Observe the No such file or directory warnings.

Expected behavior
wslu tools should understand quoted values in wsl.conf and act accordingly.

Additional context

1. When changing the configuration in wsl.conf to root = / (unquoted), the issue disappears.
2. Despite very simple workaround in pt.1 above, I still believe this is a bug in wslu implementation. If you refer to the wsl.conf documentation, it does not clearly define what the format of the file is, and what syntax should be used. It only shows examples on how to use specific configuration sections, and in these examples the root property is indeed presented as unquoted. However, the example also shows that the options property of the [automount] section can be quoted, and that - in my opinion - suggest that any value in the file can be quoted and it should be handled properly.

[patrick330602]

Thank you for the report. I will fix the issue in 4.1.

[dj-rabel]

Hello @patrick330602. Not sure if opening a new issue would have been better, but the script failes as well, if one sets the default user to root in wsl.conf like so:

[user]
default = root

I was able to temporarily fix it for me, by changing the awk line inside the "interop_prefix" function to
tmp=$(awk -F '=' '/^\s*root/ {print $2}' /etc/wsl.conf | awk '{$1=$1;print}')

Hope this helps ♥

[2pl]

Hi @patrick330602 I also noticed that the awk pattern for root does not ignore commented lines ie adding something like the below in /etc/wsl.conf will trigger similar errors as described above by @mkielar

# [automount]
# root = /whatever

I guess the modified awk interop_prefix function suggested by @dj-rabel should fix this as well.

[patrick330602]

fixed in dev