I've been told by my infrastructure team that my upcoming project should be deployed using Podman instead of Docker because they have concerns about providing root access. I thought it wouldn't be a problem, but now I find myself a bit lost on where to get started. The documentation I've found so far seems really sparse, especially when it comes to Quadlets. The top search results mostly lead to a forum thread, Podman Desktop, and the Podman Quadlet docs, which offer even less information than the general Podman docs. It honestly feels like I'm missing out on some inside knowledge. While I could look up tutorials online, I tend to prefer official documentation, which feels lacking. Does the Podman team expect people to learn through the experiences of tech influencers writing tutorials based on trial and error?
6 Answers
To get the hang of Podman, just focus on understanding the concept of pods first. From there, it’s mostly about translating your Docker commands to Podman commands step by step. I feel like a lot of people don’t really know how to learn effectively anymore and expect everything to be super straightforward.
Honestly, I think Podman is super easy to use, and I find the documentation helpful. You just need to dive in!
Are we talking about the same official docs here?
It's interesting that your infra team is worried about root access when you should be able to run Docker with a non-root user too. That being said, Podman is a solid choice, especially if you're using Red Hat or a similar distribution. A lot of the documentation you need is actually found in Red Hat's resources; there’s a good page about Quadlets that you should check out too!
I appreciate the resources! It's nice to have some solid links to official docs.
I started using Podman mainly for the rootless containers, but honestly, I also prefer it over paying for Docker Desktop. That’s really my only motivation!
What exactly are you trying to accomplish with Podman? Personally, I’ve found the official docs to be pretty useful for my needs each time I've checked them.
I need some guidance on Quadlets—like how to convert docker-compose.yaml to Quadlets and how to manage multiple files effectively. The info just isn’t as thorough as it is for Docker.
Make sure to check out the RHEL docs—they're super comprehensive and have a lot of valuable info. But I think your core issue is the disconnect between the question you asked and what you really want to know. It's less about specific commands and more about deploying services using systemd and managing user access. Once you get into that, the Podman commands will become clearer, so definitely look through the manual regularly as you experiment!
Totally! It’s like everyone wants the shortcut without digging in.