WSL: Using A WSL symlink folder from Windows

Question

I use WSL almost exclusively, and only switch to main windows for browsing and running Windows native programs. I have a git repository located at /mnt/c/myrepo. In order to "install" the code inside /mnt/c/myrepo I need to move it to /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed. Instead of executing cp -r /mnt/c/myrepo /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed every time I do a git pull from /mnt/c/myrepo, I would like to symlink /mnt/c/myrepo to /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed. However when I do this, the program which consumes /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed isn't able to view the "contents" of renamed as a directory.

I have been all over the WSL github repo and issue tracker trying to find a solution to this issue. I see a lot of exclamations about how symlinks "just work". I have enabled every Windows 10 developer feature I can find, I even followed some reddit thread where someone claimed that purchasing Pengwin and creating a symlink from Pengwin would ensure this compatibility, but I still can't seem to make this work.

The basic usage I need, is allow me to view "renamed" as a directory from windows, or for windows to recognize the symlink as a symlinked directory.

from wsl:

ln -s /mnt/c/myrepo  /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed

from windows:

1. open file explorer
2. navigate to c:\otherlocation
3. open mydir and view the contents as if it were a native directory

How do I do this?

Answer 1

Do the symlink in Windows, in cmd.exe:

mklink /d C:\otherlocation\renamed C:\myrepo

It doesn't make sense creating the symlinks in WSL if both directories are in Windows.

This symlink will work in WSL as well.