How should I stop or end my work day? Should I run a down command or should I close running wsl --shutdown ?
I ran into some trouble yesterday with my docker that was old and needed updateing, after updating I was able to start and work normally, then at the end of the workday I ran wsl --shutdown but this morning when I opened my docker again it said Docker Desktop Stopped and I had to restart it, which hadn't happened before. I'm new so I'm not sure if that's normal, I was using an old version where after i closed wsl it wouldn't say docker desktop closed and instead display my containers.
Think of it like this: wsl --shutdown is like pulling the power cord on your entire WSL environment, while stopping Docker gracefully is like properly shutting down your applications first.
What likely happened: Your old Docker version was probably configured differently or had some containers set to auto-restart. The newer version is being more explicit about its state.
Best practice:
Stop your containers/services first (sail down or docker compose down)
Then either close Docker Desktop normally OR use wsl --shutdown
The "Docker Desktop Stopped" message is actually normal behavior - it's just being more transparent about its state
The real question: Do you need WSL to stay running for other development work, or is Docker your main use case? This affects whether you should use wsl --shutdown at all. Personally I sail down then leave WSL running (as I have enough resources to keep it running and not affect anything else).
@Braunson Thanks for the reply, I only use wsl for Docker.
I have the bad habit of never turning off my work computer, so I like to close everything and leave my chrome open, so I do usually run wsl --shutdown everyday. I'll definitely be running docker compose down before wsl --shutdown from now on.
