WSL Share Mount

Mount Windows SMB shares into WSL from VS Code, with the mount state shown in the status bar.

VS Code Marketplace · Open VSX · ext install exeltarkus.wsl-share-mount

English | Bahasa Indonesia

Screenshots

Share Manager: each share shows a Linked / Disconnected badge with Mount / Unmount. Edit and Remove are hidden while a share is mounted ("Unmount to edit or remove").

Empty state before any share is added.

Installation

• VS Code Marketplace: exeltarkus.wsl-share-mount
• Open VSX (VSCodium, etc.): exeltarkus/wsl-share-mount
• Quick Open (Ctrl+P): ext install exeltarkus.wsl-share-mount
• From a .vsix: Extensions view → ... → Install from VSIX...

Install it in the WSL window (the extension runs in the WSL extension host).

Requirements

• The extension runs in the WSL extension host only (extensionKind: workspace). Open your folder with WSL: Connect to WSL. Outside WSL (detected via /proc/version) it stays idle.
• sudo inside WSL (needed for mount / umount).
• For auth: "credentials" shares: cifs-utils (sudo apt install cifs-utils).

Getting started

1. Click WSL Share in the status bar to open the Share Manager panel, then click + Add share.
2. Fill in the form (Esc at any step cancels without saving):
   1. (1/4) Display name, e.g. UAT.
   2. (2/4) Windows share path (UNC), e.g. \\server\share\UAT. Forward slashes like //server/share/UAT are accepted and converted; a trailing slash is removed.
   3. (3/4) Mount point in WSL. Defaults to /mnt/<name> (name lowercased, other characters turned into -). Must be an absolute path not used by another share.
   4. (4/4) Login: Current Windows login (windows) or Username + password (credentials). For the latter you can enter a username such as CORP\user; leave it empty to be asked on every mount.
3. Click Mount on the share's row (and Unmount later).

Share Manager panel

• Header: linked/total summary, Mount all (shown when more than one share is disconnected), + Add share and Refresh.
• Each row: Linked / Disconnected badge, name, login type, mount point and UNC path, plus Mount or Unmount.
• Edit / Remove appear only while the share is not mounted. Removing asks for confirmation.
• The panel updates by itself after every action and whenever the mount state is refreshed.

Features

• Two auth modes:
  • windows (default): mount -t drvfs with uid/gid/metadata, using your current Windows login. No password needed.
  • credentials: mount -t cifs //server/share/... with a username and password. The username comes from the setting or is asked; the password is always asked and never stored. It is passed through a temporary 0600 credentials file in $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR that is deleted right after mounting, so it never shows up in ps. DOMAIN\user is split into domain + username; user@domain is passed as-is.
• sudo only when needed: tries sudo -n first and only asks for the sudo password if it is required. The password is sent via stdin and not stored.
• Ask once per batch: when mounting several shares at once (Mount all or a multi-select), the sudo password and each share password (per username) are asked only once.
• Batch-safe: one share failing does not stop the others. Cancelling a password prompt cancels the rest of the batch.
• Non-empty folder check: mounting onto a non-empty folder asks for confirmation. The local contents are hidden (not deleted) while the share is mounted.
• Reconnect after WSL restart: mounts are not persistent (nothing is written to /etc/fstab), so wsl --shutdown drops them. On the next start, shares that were mounted before are reported as disconnected with a Mount again button.
• Status bar: WSL Share: none, WSL Share: 0/N mounted, the share's name when exactly one is mounted, or X/N mounted. Green when all shares are mounted, yellow when only some are. The tooltip lists each share as MOUNTED / NOT MOUNTED (or "No shares configured. Click to add one."). Clicking it opens the Share Manager. It refreshes when the settings change and when the window regains focus (e.g. after mounting from the terminal).

Commands

Settings

Shares are stored in wslShareMount.shares (machine scope). The Add / Edit / Remove forms write it to your user settings and leave any other entries untouched (even invalid ones). It is an array of:

Invalid entries and duplicate mountPoints are ignored, with a warning in the WSL Share Mount output channel.

Advanced: edit JSON directly

You can still edit the setting by hand (Open Settings (JSON)). Example:

"wslShareMount.shares": [
  { "name": "UAT", "share": "\\\\server\\share\\UAT", "mountPoint": "/mnt/uat" },
  {
    "name": "Reports",
    "share": "\\\\fileserver\\reports",
    "mountPoint": "/mnt/reports",
    "auth": "credentials",
    "username": "CORP\\user"
  }
]

Known limitations

• A wrong share password is reused for the rest of that batch; run the action again to retry.
• Mounts do not survive a WSL restart (see Reconnect after WSL restart).
• UI text is English only.

Development

npm install
npm test              # compile + unit tests (node --test)
npm run package       # build the .vsix (vsce)
npm run install:local # build + install into your local VS Code (add -- --force to reinstall the same version)
npm run screenshots   # regenerate images/icon.png and images/screenshots/*.png

Press F5 in VS Code (Run Extension) to launch the Extension Development Host.

License

MIT