You may notice that your system drive runs out of space when using WSL-Distibutions. So you might ask how to move these stuff to another hard drive or get some space back from your precious drive. Warning: Some commands here might be destructive - I take no responsibilities for any lost data. Read, understand and then decide to follow instructions or not.
https://superuser.com/questions/1606213/how-do-i-get-back-unused-disk-space-from-ubuntu-on-wsl2
The Problem: WSL will dynamically grow the virtual disk (ext4.vhdx) but never shrink it to reclaim unused space. (See also microsoft/WSL#4699) - What a bummer huh.
Usually this virtual hard disk is located at:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Packages\\CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\\LocalState
Chances are good that you can get a lot of disk space back by using "optimize-vhd -Path <PathToYourVHD> -Mode full" from the PowerShell after shutting down wsl distributions. To do so run the following commands:
wsl --shutdown
optimize-vhd -Path <PathToYourVhdxFile> -Mode full
In my case some vhdx files took up to 50GB and could be optimized to around 8GB - Not so bad for two commands.
Note: The optimize-vhd command is not available in Home-Editions as mentioned in the Github-Issue above. In this case you can use diskpart instead (thx to davidwin and merkuriy).
wsl --shutdown
diskpart
# open window Diskpart
select vdisk file="C:\WSL-Distros\…\ext4.vhdx"
attach vdisk readonly
compact vdisk
detach vdisk
exit
If you dont want theese distributions on your system drive you can follow the guide at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38779801/move-wsl-bash-on-windows-root-filesystem-to-another-hard-drive.
In Windows 10 version 1903 (April 2019 Update) or later, you can use the wsl.exe command line tool to move an entire distribution to another location.
If you have an older version you can follow the instructions from the SO-Link above using LxRunOffline.
First you want to create a .tar file with the distribution to move using wsl.exe --export.
Run wsl --list --verbose to get a list of your installed distributions.
Please note that this command is user dependent - running it as administrator will give different results than you standard user. Now
you can run "wsl.exe --export <DistributionName> "
command to store the archive to the desired location. For instance, to
export an Ubuntu distribution, you can use:
wsl --export Ubuntu D:\WSL\Ubuntu\Ubuntu.tar
Now that you have a backup of your distribution you can unregister it from WSL using "wsl --unregister"
wsl --unregister Ubuntu
Caution: Once unregistered, all data, settings, and software
associated with that distribution will be permanently lost. Reinstalling
from the store will install a clean copy of the distribution. Running wsl --list will reveal that it
is no longer listed.
Now you can import the exported distribution into another folder by using "wsl.exe --import <DistributionName> <Folder-To-Install> <Tar-FileName>". For instance, to import the exported Ubuntu, you can use:
wsl --import Ubuntu D:\WSL\Ubuntu D:\WSL\Ubuntu\Ubuntu.tar
Note: I suggest you the following script that use these commands for moving WSL distros: https://github.com/pxlrbt/move-wsl (thx to pixelarbeit).
Depending on how much you have, Docker images, containers and volumes can pretty easy fill your whole system disk (like any other distribution). The "docker-desktop-data" distro is used by the "docker-desktop" distro as the backing store for container images etc. In general, you should be able to move the whole thing the same way you move any WSL-Distribution (export, unregister, import) as described before.
To analyze, how much disk space is used by Docker just run "docker system df" (Add --v to get more information's.)
docker system df
https://docs.docker.com/config/pruning/
To clean up as much as possible excluding components that are in use, run this commands: Note: Theese are destructive commands:
docker system prune --a
docker image prune --a
docker container prune -a
docker volume prune --a
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config#wslconfig
Create a .wslconfig file at %UserProfile%. In the textbox below you find an example.
[wsl2]
memory=8GB # Limits VM memory in WSL 2
processors=4 # Makes the WSL 2 VM use 4 virtual processors
localhostForwarding=true # Boolean specifying if ports bound to wildcard or localhost in the WSL 2 VM should be connectable from the host via localhost:port.
You can add more options if you want (even use a custom Linux kernel). The complete list of options can be found here. After saving the file, restart the Linux Subsystem Manager by fire up the following command from an elevated PowerShell:
Restart-Service LxssManager