Multiple directories in / looking like wslRaNDoM

[cochetti]

Windows Build Number

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22000.51]

WSL Version

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.10.16

Distro Version

Ubuntu & Ubuntu-20.04

Other Software

NA

Repro Steps

There are 410 directories in my / directory that all start with "wsl" and what appears to be a random string of 6 letters in mixed case. I can't seem to find any information about these and when I get properties on them they are 0 bytes in size.

They are owned by root, and when I use the root account to enter them they are empty. I have included how they appear in Windows and the results of ls -l for the directory.

Unsure how this occurred, my apologies

Expected Behavior

My guess based on the time these were created is that they are residual temporary folders used from a apt update run that for some reason weren't deleted. However given the number of them and the difficulty in searching for this issue given the keywords to describe the problem just bring up generic info on WSL and directories I thought I would ask more directly.

Actual Behavior

These exist instead of being deleted.

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[OneBlue]

Thanks for reporting this @cochetti.

These temporary directories are created during the WSL boot processes, but we've had a bug where those weren't deleted.
This bug has been fixed recently though, if you start wsl after deleting all those directories, do you still see those ?

[ghost]

This issue has been automatically closed since it has not had any author activity for the past 7 days. If you're still experiencing this issue please re-open it.

Thank you!

[jlliagre]

Not sure if a new bug should be open or that one should be re-opened but I observe the same issue on Windows 11 build 22631.3007 & Oracle Linux 9.1.

[cochetti]

Yes, this still remains a problem for me as well.

[sudface]

I have the same issue as well. The directories were created as recent as 2023-12-18.

I am running Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS with Kernel 5.15.133.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2

[Lokdal]

same issue here as well

[jairmedeiros]

same here

[jairmedeiros]

I just followed this for now.

[carschandler]

Why was this issue closed? It is still occurring.

[sudface]

Why was this issue closed? It is still occurring.

Can you run ls -ogah and see what the creation dates are for those directories? I had the same issue on another device if mine, and they turned out to be some two years old.

In which case, closing this issue is valid, as it has seemingly been addressed in future updates.

If your directories were generated newly then this may be a thing to reopen!

[carschandler]

I created the WSL instance about 3 months ago so it is at least that recent.

[jlliagre]

The issue is still present with some files created this year:

$ pe ls -ogdltr wsl* | tail -20
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 20 02:45 wslPfNbGf
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 20 02:45 wslLcFanE
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 20 02:45 wslIBAEpP
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 20 02:45 wslBpgclD
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 21 00:35 wslmiiKhL
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 21 00:35 wslMEljNg
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 21 00:35 wslJoKBBa
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 21 00:35 wslflGgip
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 21 00:38 wslOmoAbA
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 21 00:38 wsliaanod
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 21 00:38 wslFeoKGA
drwx------ 2 4096 Dec 21 00:38 wsleMGIab
drwx------ 2 4096 Jan 22 13:48 wslpLNkoD
drwx------ 2 4096 Jan 22 13:48 wsloCgEhf
drwx------ 2 4096 Jan 22 13:48 wslFhigOg
drwx------ 2 4096 Jan 22 13:48 wslCOlGBM
drwx------ 2 4096 Jan 22 14:27 wslogfDHc
drwx------ 2 4096 Jan 22 14:27 wsliKaOol
drwx------ 2 4096 Jan 22 14:27 wsleblKGO
drwx------ 2 4096 Jan 22 14:27 wslajalii

Note that in my case, the issue happens on the second distribution installed, Oracle Linux but not on the initial one, Debian.

$ uname -a
Linux ol91a 5.15.146.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 #1 SMP Thu Jan 11 04:09:03 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ wsl --version
WSL version: 2.1.5.0
Kernel version: 5.15.146.1-2
WSLg version: 1.0.60
MSRDC version: 1.2.5105
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.22631.3447

OS version is actually Windows 11 23H2 (build 22631.3447)

[taoteg]

Yep, still happening.