Referencing an official WSL image for Arch Linux and acceptable pull request frequency for the WSL team

[Antiz96]

Hello 👋

We, at Arch Linux, are currently discussing about providing an official WSL image. We would like to make such an image available via wsl --install for users by including it in the DistributionInfo.json file through a pull request, as described in the related documentation.

Arch Linux being a rolling release distribution, we intend to build and release new images regularly, which would imply regular pull requests to update the image's "Url" and "Sha256" fields in the DistributionInfo.json file accordingly.
Given that you would be fine referencing an official WSL image for Arch Linux, what pull request frequency would be acceptable for the WSL team?
We initially thought of building and releasing new images once a month (which matches the release frequency of our ISO). Would that be acceptable on your side?

I remain available if needed 🙂

[github-actions]

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[Antiz96]

Logs are required for review from WSL team

If this a feature request, please reply with '/feature'. If this is a question, reply with '/question'. Otherwise please attach logs by following the instructions below, your issue will not be reviewed unless they are added. These logs will help us understand what is going on in your machine.
How to collect WSL logs

/question

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[elsaco]

@Antiz96 IMO, you should make it a true WSL modern distro by adding an OOBE script that runs on installation instead of the /etc/wsl-first-setup.sh

See details at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/build-custom-distro

[Antiz96]

@Antiz96 IMO, you should make it a true WSL modern distro by adding an OOBE script that runs on installation instead of the /etc/wsl-first-setup.sh

See details at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/build-custom-distro

@elsaco The /etc/wsl-first-setup.sh is our OOBE script. See the wsl-distribution.conf file.

[OneBlue]

Hi @Antiz96,

Yes we'd love to offer an official ArchLinux image in our distribution manifest.
One PR per month sounds good.

Before publishing your official PR, I recommend running the validation script locally:

$ pip install -r distributions/requirements.txt
$ python distributions/validate-modern.py --tar /path/to/tar

This should give you a list of recommendation to have the best WSL experience with ArchLinux.

Let me know if there's anything else I can help with !

[Antiz96]

Hey @OneBlue,

Thanks a lot for your prompt response and your interest in including an official Arch Linux image in your distribution manifest!

I'll bump the related proposal on our side and give a bit of time for one more round of thoughts / validation on the current specifications for distributing an official Arch Linux WSL image. Given that we agree on them, I will open the PR right after (and closing this issue at the same time)!

I'll make sure to run the validation script and address any eventual feedback from it by then 😉

Thanks again!

[Antiz96]

Hi again @OneBlue,

Quick question :)
Given that we build & publish a new image every month (and update the distribution manifest on your side accordingly via a PR), do we need to preserve "old" images around for some time? If so, do you know what the minimum number of images and / or retention period would be required on your side?

As a reference we build a new ISO once a month and keep our last 3 ISOs around (so a 3 months retention period).
Would that be okay on your side?

[OneBlue]

Hi @Antiz96.

Yes we do recommend preserving old images for a bit (even after the distribution manifest is updated). Our recommendation is to keep the last two tars (including the current one), so keeping a 3-month retention period sound great !

[Antiz96]

Alright, thanks!