How to change default directory in Windows Subsystem for Linux - windows-subsystem-for-linux

Question

I am setting up my development environment, so I just installed Windows Subsystem for Linux and it always seems to open a fresh terminal in my Windows home directory - /mnt/c/Users/dl and I'm trying to make it default to the linux home directory - /home/dl.
I checked to see what the home directory is in the Linux subsystem in /etc/passwd and it is correctly set:
dl:x:1000:1000:,,,:/home/dl:/bin/bash
Then I came across this solution, but it doesn't seem to have any affect:
// Set starting directory
"startingDirectory": "\\\\wsl$\\Ubuntu\\home\\dl\\"
I know I can just run cd ~ in my dot files (which is what I'm currently using), but I'm looking for a way where /home/dl is just the default and cd ~ isn't needed. Is this possible?

Answer 1

You should only change the startingDirectory for WSL (Ubuntu in this case) terminal sessions.
Open settings.json via CTRL+SHIFT+,
Make sure you are modifying startingDirectory under profiles/list/name: "Ubuntu"
Example below (the slashes need to be escaped):
....
{
"guid": "{2c4de342-xxx-xxx-xxx-2309a097f518}",
"hidden": false,
"name": "Ubuntu",
"source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
"startingDirectory": "\\\\wsl$\\Ubuntu\\home\\windows_username_in_lower_case"
},
....
Documentation about startingDirectory including default values and expected values.
Inside settings.json you will also find an explanation of the json schema which is here
If you need to know how or where to edit Windows Terminal settings/preferences: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/get-started

Answer 2

In Windows 10 21H2 or later and Windows 11, it's now much simpler. According to the Microsoft Doc:
On newer versions of Windows, startingDirectory can accept Linux-style paths.
That means you can simply use:
"startingDirectory": "/home/yourusername"
No need for any prefixes for Windows directory structure, nor escaped backslashes. Just plain old Linux forward-slash notation.
This works in both WSL1 and WSL2.
Note: I tried to use "~" and it failed. There may be some way to use {$USERPROFILE}, but haven't tried it.

Answer 3

Changing the home directory with WSL is done the same way as in Linux:
Enter bash
Type the command sudo vim /etc/passwd
Find your account's line, which might look like:
shadyar:x:1000:1000:"",,,:/home/shadyar:/bin/bash
Change the home directory, which above is /home/shadyar, to the new directory, using WSL
note: If you want to set Windows directory as home directory, you need to prepend it with /mnt/, like /mnt/c for C:/, /mnt/d for D:/, etc
Save the file and exit vim by typing :wq and press Enter
Exit bash and re-launch it
To test, use the commands:
cd ~
pwd

Answer 4

The other answers here (especially the latest one from #TomBoland) are great for starting in an arbitrary directory, but the example in your question was to start in your home directory. The easiest way to do that is simply to create or change the "commandline" property to wsl ~. This is an undocumented flag to wsl.exe, and it must be the first argument (e.g. wsl ~ -u root).
Current and Recent Windows Terminal Releases
Since Windows Terminal now has a GUI for Settings, you can just edit your profile to point to wsl ~ in the ->General->Command Line setting.
Older Windows Terminal Releases, or if you want to edit manually
If you are editing your settings.json directly (currently found in %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\MicrosoftWindowsTerminal...\LocalState\settings.json, but this may change) ...
Remove the "source" attribute and replace it with "commandline":
"guid": "{2d5ef231-38b7-51cf-b940-2309a097f644}",
"hidden": false,
"name": "Ubuntu",
//"source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
"commandline": "wsl ~",
"startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/",
"tabTitle": "Ubuntu"
Also, for the fun of it, here's an alternative (hacky) way to open WSL to ~/$HOME (without hardcoding as with the other answers). This is absolutely not needed since it's much easier to use wsl ~, but:
wsl -e sh -c 'cd $HOME; exec $SHELL'
This starts up sh, changes the directory to $HOME, and then exec's your $SHELL to replace the sh.

Answer 5

Should you use Windows Terminal with WSL, then the simplest solution is to configure the starting directory via the Settings menu:
and then:

Answer 6

startingDirectory Should be a windows path, not a nix path. Try D:\Folder\SubFolder instead
refer this link,worked for me
github

Answer 7

I tried many things here and none worked but I finally found a workaround.
After opening your ubuntu, you can set the default path by editing your .bashrc file.
I personally wanted to change it from the default /home/${my_username} to my current user directory (like command prompt C:/users/${my_username}), so I just ran this in my Ubuntu terminal
echo 'cd "../../mnt/c/users/${my_username}"' >> $HOME/.bashrc

Answer 8

Step 1: Open windows command prompt and type "bash"
or open Linux app directly .
Step 2: Type a route which is something like this : /mnt/c/Users/HP/..(You can enter your desired directory here).
For example : /mnt/c/Users/HP/Documents , and by this you will get inside Documents.

Answer 9

For WSL2 Ubuntu the syntax should now match the following example in the json:
"guid": "{2d5ef231-38b7-51cf-b940-2309a097f644}",
"hidden": false,
"name": "Ubuntu",
"source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
"startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/",
"tabTitle": "Ubuntu"
To start in /: "startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/",
To start in /root: "startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/root/",
To start in /home: "startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/home/",

Answer 10

No need to do any of that, just open up the profile for Ubuntu under settings, then update the Command line to add the following option
C:\Windows\system32\wsl.exe -d Ubuntu --cd ~