WSL2: nodemon file watcher no longer working

[adamlacombe]

Your Windows build number: 10.0.18917.1000

What you're doing and what's happening:

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
Release:        18.04
Codename:       bionic

I'm running nodemon@1.19.1

My working directory is located in /mnt/c/Users/Adam/Documents/...

My nodemon.json:

{
  "watch": [
    "**/*.ts"
  ],
  "ext": "ts",
  "ignore": [
    "./test/*.ts",
    "./node_modules/**/node_modules"
  ],
  "exec": "node -r ts-node/register Index.ts",
  "env": {
    "NODE_ENV": "development"
  }
}

I run: nodemon --delay 1500ms --signal SIGTERM and then modify a file that is being watched.

I'm modifying the file from outside WSL, but I have also tried from within WSL using nano.

What's wrong / what should be happening instead: After updating to WSL2 nodemon no longer triggers a restart of my application.

I'm able to run nano ./modified_file.ts and see the change.

In another project built with Stencil@1.0.4 I'm able to run stencil build --dev --watch --serve and file modifications trigger a reload.

[therealkenc]

Yep. The /Build 2019 presentation the devs mention that they (quoth) "still need to plumb" inotify(7) on the 9p filesystem. The word "plumb" is carrying a lot of weight there. Ref #1956 (message).

In the meantime, the WSL 2 launch blog post suggests:

We understand that we have spent the past three years telling you to put your files into your C drive when using WSL 1, but this is not the case in WSL 2. To enjoy the faster file system access in WSL 2 these files must be inside of the Linux root file system.

Faster, yes. But for the purposes of your scenario (and a few other edge cases), also to have access to the complete set of ext4 filesystem features.

[adamlacombe]

That makes sense. Moving my project into the linux file system solves the issues with inotify. Thanks

[canselcik]

This is related to #4064 (comment) just like #4224.

[therealkenc]

#4064 #4739 as LZ

[LiamKarlMitchell]

@therealkenc @adamlacombe Could you please elaborate on how to solve this by putting the project into the linux file system so that inotify works?

Would like to be able to run docker containers from windows, map the files in as volumes and have changes auto-reload by using inotify/related tools e.g. nodemon/hotreload/Quasar is this possible?

[onomatopellan]

@LiamKarlMitchell the linux file system is the /home/* folder. It will work faster and better if you move/clone your code there. Also remember to install any tool you need in it's Linux version.

The Docker for Windows Edge with WSL2 backend supports your scenario but you will also need to use VSCode + Remote Extensions in order to edit files with inotify support inside the Linux distro.
It was explained in https://www.docker.com/blog/developing-docker-windows-app-wsl2/