WSL1 does not use 9p, because WSL1 filesystems are stored directly on NTFS. You still need to be careful playing with WSL1 files from the Windows side (and vice-versa!), since thereās a mismatch between POSIX permissions and Windows security descriptors, but thereās a 1:1 relationship between a file in Windows and a file in Linux. If you come across a reference to DrvFs, itās this.
WSL2 stores its files in a HyperV virtual hard disk (VHD), so it needs some way to talk to Windows, and it uses 9p to do that. Not that Iāve tried anytime recently, but I donāt believe that Windows can mount arbitrary 9p devices. Itās more that theyāve chosen 9p behind-the-scenes to facilitate WSL/Windows file exchange.
Not saying that from a well-actually perspective, but rather that I know both that people in this forum are likely curious, and that the difference between WSL versions, and use of 9p in Windows, are not well documented.
It is widely used, but little known protocol from my experience. People use WSL2 a lot, but know nothing about 9p, not even are aware of its existence (which means that it is good protocol, but that doesnāt change that it is little known protocol).
Iāve been using the dict CLI tool (part of the same source distribution as dictd, but available as its own package in Debian) for as long as I can remember. It defaults to querying dict://dict.org (well, unless you have dictd running on localhost).
Iāve been on the internet since 1993 and it was new to me. (I remember a course in library access that talked about the newfangled āWWWā giving gopher a run for its money)
edit this is about the dict: URI scheme, not the Unix command.
I found the following list of still available DICT servers - https://dikt.tv/servers
For example:
i immediately tried urban dictionary to see if they implemented this protocol
curl dict://urbandictionary.com/d:rizz
unfortunately not š
I recently started to love all that old and āobscureā protocols. Finger, IRC, 9p - now i have yet another one to implement in Elixir/Erlang.
9p is surprisingly unobscure and widespread, considering it was used in WSL (or WSL2), not sure anymore. Afaik windows also supports mounting 9P now
QEMU can serve filesystems via 9P to VMs
WSL1 does not use 9p, because WSL1 filesystems are stored directly on NTFS. You still need to be careful playing with WSL1 files from the Windows side (and vice-versa!), since thereās a mismatch between POSIX permissions and Windows security descriptors, but thereās a 1:1 relationship between a file in Windows and a file in Linux. If you come across a reference to DrvFs, itās this.
WSL2 stores its files in a HyperV virtual hard disk (VHD), so it needs some way to talk to Windows, and it uses 9p to do that. Not that Iāve tried anytime recently, but I donāt believe that Windows can mount arbitrary 9p devices. Itās more that theyāve chosen 9p behind-the-scenes to facilitate WSL/Windows file exchange.
Not saying that from a well-actually perspective, but rather that I know both that people in this forum are likely curious, and that the difference between WSL versions, and use of 9p in Windows, are not well documented.
It is widely used, but little known protocol from my experience. People use WSL2 a lot, but know nothing about 9p, not even are aware of its existence (which means that it is good protocol, but that doesnāt change that it is little known protocol).
Iāve been using the
dictCLI tool (part of the same source distribution asdictd, but available as its own package in Debian) for as long as I can remember. It defaults to queryingdict://dict.org(well, unless you havedictdrunning on localhost).Is dictd really that obscure? I use my self-hosted dictd every day from CLI and Emacs.
Iāve been on the internet since 1993 and it was new to me. (I remember a course in library access that talked about the newfangled āWWWā giving gopher a run for its money)
edit this is about the
dict:URI scheme, not the Unix command.Following up on
dict(1), itās not a package installed on stock Ubuntu, so unless you know you need itās not easily discoverable.I donāt think Iāve used it myself, but dictd didnāt seem obscure to the commenters on https://lobste.rs/s/uczm43/you_re_probably_using_wrong_dictionary.