Podman also called “Pod Manager” is an open-source tool used for creating and managing containers. It is part of the libpod library that doesn’t rely on the Docker daemon and is compatible with Docker. It is a simple and lightweight container runtime environment for Kubernetes. With the recent change in Docker License, podman can become a good alternative available to use in most Linux Systems.
In this tutorial, I will show you how to install and use Podman on Ubuntu 22.04 server.
Prerequisites
- A server running Ubuntu 22.04.
- A root password is configured on the server.
Install Podman on Ubuntu 22.04
By default, the Podman package is included in the Ubuntu default repository. You can install it by just running the following command:
apt install podman -y
Once the Podman is installed, you can verify it with the following command:
podman -v
You should see the Podman version in the following output:
podman version 3.4.4
You can also see the detailed information about Podman with the following command:
podman info
You should get the following output:
host:
arch: amd64
buildahVersion: 1.23.1
cgroupControllers:
- cpuset
- cpu
- io
- memory
- hugetlb
- pids
- rdma
- misc
cgroupManager: systemd
cgroupVersion: v2
conmon:
package: 'conmon: /usr/bin/conmon'
path: /usr/bin/conmon
version: 'conmon version 2.0.25, commit: unknown'
cpus: 2
distribution:
codename: jammy
distribution: ubuntu
version: "22.04"
eventLogger: journald
hostname: ubuntu2204
idMappings:
Configure Podman Registry
By default, the Podman registry is not configured to download and install container images from the web. So you will need to configure it first.
nano /etc/containers/registries.conf
Add the following lines:
[registries.search]
registries=["registry.access.redhat.com", "registry.fedoraproject.org", "docker.io"]
Save and close the file when you are finished.
Download Images with Podman
Podman allows you to easily search and download images from the web. For example, to search a Debian image, run the following command:
podman search debian
You should get a list of all Debian images in the following output:
INDEX NAME DESCRIPTION STARS OFFICIAL AUTOMATED
docker.io docker.io/library/ubuntu Ubuntu is a Debian-based Linux operating sys... 14959 [OK]
docker.io docker.io/library/debian Debian is a Linux distribution that's compos... 4435 [OK]
docker.io docker.io/library/neurodebian NeuroDebian provides neuroscience research s... 93 [OK]
docker.io docker.io/bitnami/debian-base-buildpack Debian base compilation image 2 [OK]
docker.io docker.io/mirantis/debian-build-ubuntu-xenial 0
docker.io docker.io/mirantis/debian-build-ubuntu-trusty 0
docker.io docker.io/osrf/debian_arm64 Debian arm64 Base Images 1
docker.io docker.io/rancher/debianconsole 1
docker.io docker.io/dokken/debian-10 Debian 10 image for use with kitchen-dokken 0
docker.io docker.io/dokken/debian-9 Debian 9 image for kitchen-dokken 0
docker.io docker.io/ustclug/debian Official Debian Image with USTC Mirror 1
docker.io docker.io/dokken/debian-8 EOL: Debian 8 image for kitchen-dokken 0
docker.io docker.io/dokken/debian-11 Debian 11 image for use with kitchen-dokken 0
docker.io docker.io/corpusops/debian-bare https://github.com/corpusops/docker-images/ 0
docker.io docker.io/datadog/debian-i386 0
docker.io docker.io/corpusops/debian debian corpusops baseimage 0
docker.io docker.io/osrf/debian_armhf Debian Armhf Base Images 1
docker.io docker.io/treehouses/debian 2
docker.io docker.io/dokken/debian-7 EOL DISTRO: For use with kitchen-dokken, Bas... 0
docker.io docker.io/treehouses/debian-tags 0
docker.io docker.io/dokken/debian-12 0
docker.io docker.io/dockage/debian-runit Docker image uses runit as a process supervi... 2 [OK]
docker.io docker.io/galaxy/debian32-wheel 0
docker.io docker.io/galaxy/debian-wheel 0
docker.io docker.io/dockage/debian Debian image that forms the base for some Do... 2 [OK]
Next, download the latest Debian image from the internet using the following command:
podman pull debian
This will search and download the latest Debian image as shown below:
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob 23858da423a6 done
Copying config 43d28810c1 done
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
43d28810c1b4c28a1be3bac8e0e40fcc472b2bfcfcda952544ed99cb874d2b1a
You can now verify the downloaded image with the following command:
podman images
You should see the following output:
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
docker.io/library/debian latest 43d28810c1b4 5 days ago 129 MB
Create and Manage Container Using Podman
With Podman, you can easily create and manage containers via the command line.
To create a container from the Debian image, run the following command:
podman run -dit --name debian-container debian
Once the container is created, you can see the running container with the following command:
podman ps
You should see the following output:
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
533698eaf6f1 docker.io/library/debian:latest bash 6 seconds ago Up 6 seconds ago debian-container
To connect to the Debian container, run the following command:
podman attach debian-container
You will get into the Debian container as shown below:
[email protected]:/#
You can verify the container version with the following command:
cat /etc/os-release
You will get the following output:
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="11"
VERSION="11 (bullseye)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bullseye
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
To exit from the container, run the following command:
[email protected]:/# exit
To stop the container, run the following command:
podman stop debian-container
To start the container, run the following command:
podman start debian-container
To delete the container, run the following command:
podman rm debian-container
To delete the Debian image, run the following command:
podman rmi debian
You will get the following output:
Untagged: docker.io/library/debian:latest
Deleted: 43d28810c1b4c28a1be3bac8e0e40fcc472b2bfcfcda952544ed99cb874d2b1a
You can list all Podman command options with the following command:
podman --help
You should see all useful options in the following output:
Manage pods, containers and images
Usage:
podman [options] [command]
Available Commands:
attach Attach to a running container
auto-update Auto update containers according to their auto-update policy
build Build an image using instructions from Containerfiles
commit Create new image based on the changed container
container Manage containers
cp Copy files/folders between a container and the local filesystem
create Create but do not start a container
diff Display the changes to the object's file system
events Show podman events
exec Run a process in a running container
export Export container's filesystem contents as a tar archive
generate Generate structured data based on containers, pods or volumes
healthcheck Manage health checks on containers
help Help about any command
history Show history of a specified image
image Manage images
images List images in local storage
import Import a tarball to create a filesystem image
info Display podman system information
init Initialize one or more containers
inspect Display the configuration of object denoted by ID
kill Kill one or more running containers with a specific signal
load Load image(s) from a tar archive
login Login to a container registry
logout Logout of a container registry
logs Fetch the logs of one or more containers
machine Manage a virtual machine
manifest Manipulate manifest lists and image indexes
mount Mount a working container's root filesystem
network Manage networks
pause Pause all the processes in one or more containers
play Play containers, pods or volumes from a structured file
pod Manage pods
port List port mappings or a specific mapping for the container
ps List containers
pull Pull an image from a registry
push Push an image to a specified destination
rename Rename an existing container
restart Restart one or more containers
rm Remove one or more containers
rmi Removes one or more images from local storage
run Run a command in a new container
save Save image(s) to an archive
search Search registry for image
secret Manage secrets
start Start one or more containers
stats Display a live stream of container resource usage statistics
stop Stop one or more containers
system Manage podman
tag Add an additional name to a local image
top Display the running processes of a container
unmount Unmounts working container's root filesystem
unpause Unpause the processes in one or more containers
unshare Run a command in a modified user namespace
untag Remove a name from a local image
version Display the Podman version information
volume Manage volumes
wait Block on one or more containers
Getting Started with Podman
A detailed guide on how to use Podman to create images, volumes, and containers is available here: Getting Started with Podman: Manage Images, Containers and Volumes
Conclusion
Congratulations! you have successfully installed Podman on Ubuntu 22.04 server. You can now use Podman as an alternate tool for Docker to manage the container. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions. For more information about Podman, visit the Podman documentation page.
