Strange directories under / (or \\wsl.localhost\WLinux)

[vmelamed]

I haven't worked on this computer for 2-3 months now and when I came today besides the usual home and opt and usr I saw a bunch of directories at the root (or under \wsl.localhost\WLinux if you want) starting with wsl like these:

drwxr-xr-x    14 root root 4.0K Oct 15  2020 usr/
drwxr-xr-x    11 root root 4.0K Oct 15  2020 var/
drwxrwxrwt     2 root root   60 Oct 22 22:47 wsl/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Aug 12 02:42 wslAbhkmO/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Aug  5 06:01 wslAdmGdd/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Aug  5 06:01 wslAdnjab/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Aug 15 19:13 wslbdbpOJ/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Sep  7 22:59 wslbKlGJE/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Aug 15 19:13 wslceHOlf/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Aug 31 03:08 wslDfJfmE/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Aug 31 03:08 wsldGAhhL/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Aug  5 06:01 wslefoHEh/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Aug 15 19:13 wslenmlKD/
drwx------     2 root root 4.0K Sep  7 22:59 wslFGDdof/
...

I do not see these on my other computers. Is this normal or something is broken...?

[crramirez]

Hello,

Thanks for reporting, this is not normal. Looks when WSL tries to mount the wsl directory makes a backup. I'll investigate a bit this behavior and get back to you.

Regards, Carlos

[vmelamed]

If this info can help: this computer has had some problems lately, esp. with some "great" Dell service (DCFWinService) - the performance was terrible, everything was so sluggish, and I experienced big timeouts. On top of that, it wouldn't go to sleep, etc. This may be the root cause here too. I am glad that these are not artifacts from malicious s/w. I deleted those directories (as root). Thanks for all your help, Carlos! Love how responsive and accurate your support is. In general love WSL+Pengwin!

[crramirez]

Hello @vmelamed,

I inspected all the installed distros I have in Windows 11 and 10 and couldn't find those directories. But I am sure that I've seen them before, maybe in the first WSL2 insider versions. Keep an eye out if they appear again in the future; if not is just a legacy thing.

And you are very welcome!! If you haven't done so, please leave a review in the Microsoft Store it will help us a lot.

[crramirez]

Hello @vmelamed

Finally an answer for this issue: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/10690

Remove usage of gai_strerrorA since it's not thread safe (solves https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/10690)

It was corrected in WSL 2.0.11