Where is the Windows bash directory in Windows?

Question

I've installed the Windows 10 Anniversary Update on my computer.

I would like to know where the /root directory in Bash prompt is within Windows?

I would like to be able to write files in Bash that are accessible from Windows too

i.e.- If I do:

touch /root/foo

Where do I go to access foo in My PC

@LưuVĩnhPhúc yes, and all I could find were articles about where the C drive is located inside the Bash script, but nothing the other way around — Patrick, Aug 06 '16 at 20:09
really? I copied your question into Google and [this](http://askubuntu.com/q/759880/253474) appears on top — phuclv, Aug 07 '16 at 14:26
Possible duplicate of [How to access linux/Ubuntu files from Windows 10 WSL?](https://superuser.com/questions/1110974/how-to-access-linux-ubuntu-files-from-windows-10-wsl) — Bob, Aug 28 '19 at 04:59
(I am suggesting to close as dupe in reverse-chronological order as the other question is both more general and has far better and more up-to-date answers.) — Bob, Aug 28 '19 at 05:00

score 11 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

11

I believe this link will answer your question:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/759880/where-is-the-ubuntu-file-system-root-directory-in-windows-nt-subsystem-and-vice

In short:

%localappdata%\Lxss\rootfs

or

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Lxss\rootfs

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

Community

1

answered Aug 06 '16 at 02:59

kruschk

320
1
11

5

`rootfs` is deceiving. There's nothing in the `home` dir inside there, it's actually at `C:\Users\\AppData\Local\lxss\home\`. – mpen Aug 08 '16 at 17:03
@mpen as the same for me , this is not true path. – Yuseferi Aug 26 '17 at 10:24

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 15 '17 at 05:25

1

The folder changed again:

%localappdata%\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState\rootfs

C:\Users\{Username}\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState\rootfs

answered Sep 15 '17 at 05:25

Ernst Robert

111
4

Please do not post the same answer to multiple questions. If the same information really answers both questions, then one question (usually the newer one) should be closed as a duplicate of the other. You can indicate this by [voting to close it as a duplicate](https://superuser.com/help/privileges/close-questions) or, if you don't have enough reputation for that, [raise a flag](https://superuser.com/help/privileges/flag-posts) to indicate that it's a duplicate. Otherwise tailor your answer to this question and don't just paste the same answer in multiple places. – DavidPostill Sep 15 '17 at 06:13

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 06 '17 at 10:46

In my case, running last windows update (creators fall) with ubuntu upgraded, the files are still in C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\lxss\ but the lxss directory became "invisible". However, just editing the path at the top of the windows explorer manually make it work

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 17 '17 at 17:59

Accessing the WSL file-system from within Windows is not supported. As soon as you do anything more than just reading those files from within the Windows environment, things will go wrong.

But the following part of the question is not impossible and easily supported, so I'll answer this:

I would like to be able to write files in Bash that are accessible from Windows too

You can't (should not) access the Linux filesystem from within Windows, but you can quite easily access the Windows file-system from within WSL. You will find all your fixed lettered Windows NTFS drives mounted under /mnt/*, so your "C-Drive" is mounted on /mnt/c, and so on.

For example your Windows home user path will be something like /mnt/c/Users/<usernamehere>

Mounting removable drives

You can mount some filesystems yourself: MSDN Blog

sudo mkdir /mnt/sdcard
sudo mount -t drvfs U: /mnt/sdcard

Note that the actual filesystem is in this case was exFAT, so you just use drvfs as long as Windows can read the actual file system.

Where is the Windows bash directory in Windows?

4 Answers4

Mounting removable drives

More info

Linked