limactl shell default workdir

[tcuongd]

Description

limactl shell MACHINE

by default tries to cd $HOME based on the host's home directory:

lima/cmd/limactl/shell.go

Lines 133 to 134 in 1381317

	// changeDirCmd := "cd workDir || exit 1" if workDir != ""
	// := "cd hostCurrentDir || cd hostHomeDir" if workDir == ""

Would it make more sense to cd to the VM's home directory instead? What is the best way to configure a default that is guaranteed to exist on the VM?

[afbjorklund]

For the lima wrapper we use the LIMA_WORKDIR environment variable. You can make your own --workdir parameter

But eventually it should fall back to using the guest home directory, if nothing else is available through the mounts...

DEBU[0000] the host home does not seem mounted, so the guest shell will have a different cwd 

For instance if you use plain mode.

[jandubois]

by default tries to cd $HOME based on the host's home directory

This is not correct, it changes to the current directory from where you launch limactl. This is intentional (Lima tries to blur the boundary and pretend that there is no VM as much as possible), so this is not going to change.

I can see an argument for providing an option to switch to the home directory inside the instance, but can't come up with a good name.

--workdir '~' would make a certain amount of sense, but is error-prone because you might forget to put it in single-quotes, and you might expect to have $HOME etc expansion too.

--guest-home is one thing that comes to mind (and would have to be mutually exclusive with --workdir), but I don't really like it...

[afbjorklund]

One approach would be to have it go straight to the default (home directory), when running in plain mode?

But it depends also a little on what happens to the mounts, since they might be there even in plain: #3747