Running Podman

Install Podman

Podman is a container engine and an alternative to Docker. Install the required packages.

apt install podman passt uidmap dbus-user-session systemd-container

Configure subordinate user and group ID ranges for the application user to enable rootless container operation.

usermod --add-subuids 100000-165535 "$APP_USER"
usermod --add-subgids 100000-165535 "$APP_USER"

Create the Podman storage configuration for the application user.

Create the required directories.

mkdir -p "/home/$APP_USER/.config/containers"
mkdir -p "/home/$APP_USER/.local/share/containers/storage"
chmod 755 "/home/$APP_USER/.config/containers"

Write the storage configuration file.

APP_USER_UID=$(id -u "$APP_USER")
cat > "/home/$APP_USER/.config/containers/storage.conf" <<EOF
[storage]
driver = "overlay"
runroot = "/run/user/$APP_USER_UID/containers"
graphroot = "\$HOME/.local/share/containers/storage"
EOF

Set the correct file permissions and ownership.

chmod 644 "/home/$APP_USER/.config/containers/storage.conf"
chown -R "$APP_USER:$APP_USER" "/home/$APP_USER/.config"
chown -R "$APP_USER:$APP_USER" "/home/$APP_USER/.local"

Validate the Podman installation by running a test container as the application user. Use machinectl to start a login shell as the application user with proper systemd user session initialization.

machinectl shell "$APP_USER@"

Run a hello-world container to ensure Podman is working.

podman run --rm hello-world