How to Install and Use Podman on Ubuntu

Podman is a tool used for developing, managing, and running containers and images. It is developed by Red Hat and designed to be a drop-in Docker replacement. Podman is very similar to Docker. The main difference is that Docker needs the Docker Engine daemon while Podman doesn’t require a daemon to run containers. It supports multiple image formats and several ways to load images.

In this post, we will show you how to install and use Podman on an Ubuntu server. This procedure is compatible with Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04.

Step 1 – Install Podman

First, you will need to install some dependencies required to install Podman. You can install them with the following command:

apt-get install curl wget gnupg2 -y

Next, source your Ubuntu release and add the Podman repository with the following command:

source /etc/os-release
sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/kubic:/libcontainers:/stable/xUbuntu_${VERSION_ID}/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/devel:kubic:libcontainers:stable.list"

Next, download and add the GPG key with the following command:

wget -nv https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:kubic:libcontainers:stable/xUbuntu_${VERSION_ID}/Release.key -O- | apt-key add -

Next, update the repository and install Podman with the following command:

apt-get update -qq -y
apt-get -qq --yes install podman

After installing Podman, verify the Podman version with the following command:

podman --version

You should get the following output:

podman version 3.1.2

You can also check more information with the following command:

podman info

You should see the following output:

host:
  arch: amd64
  buildahVersion: 1.20.1
  cgroupManager: systemd
  cgroupVersion: v1
  conmon:
    package: 'conmon: /usr/libexec/podman/conmon'
    path: /usr/libexec/podman/conmon
    version: 'conmon version 2.0.27, commit: '
  cpus: 2
  distribution:
    distribution: ubuntu
    version: "20.04"
  eventLogger: journald
  hostname: ubuntu2004
  idMappings:
    gidmap: null
    uidmap: null
  kernel: 5.4.0-29-generic

Step 2 – Add OCI Registry

When you pull an image using the Podman command, it will look for a list of registries from the registry configuration file /etc/containers/registries.conf. You can edit and add different registries in the configuration file.

nano /etc/containers/registries.conf

Add the following lines at the end of the file:

[registries.search]
registries=["registry.access.redhat.com", "registry.fedoraproject.org", "docker.io"]

Save and close the file when you are finished.

Step 3 -Working with Podman

In this section, we will show you how to search and pull images and run a container with the Podman command.

To search for Debian-10 images, run the following command:

podman search debian-10

You should see all Debian 10 images in the following output:

INDEX      NAME                                                   DESCRIPTION                                      STARS   OFFICIAL  AUTOMATED
docker.io  docker.io/dokken/debian-10                             Debian 10 image for use with kitchen-dokken      0                 
docker.io  docker.io/pythonpillow/debian-10-buster-x86                                                             0                 
docker.io  docker.io/diodonfrost/debian-10-ansible                DEPRECATED - move to diodonfrost/ansible-deb...  0                 
docker.io  docker.io/ingescape/debian-10-with-zyre                                                                 0                 
docker.io  docker.io/alvistack/debian-10                                                                           0                 
docker.io  docker.io/naparuba/debian-10-python3                                                                    0                 
docker.io  docker.io/ursa/debian-10                                                                                0                 
docker.io  docker.io/naparuba/debian-10                                                                            0                 
docker.io  docker.io/opencpu/debian-10                            OpenCPU server of Debian 10                      0                 
docker.io  docker.io/mesaguy/debian-10-kitchen-ansible-x86_64     Debian 10 image for testing Ansible playbook...  0                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/mesaguy/debian-10-boot-x86_64                Debian 10 image, bootable for testing purpos...  0                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/couchbasebuild/debian-10-gcc                                                                  0                 
docker.io  docker.io/radarhere/debian-10-buster-x86                                                                0                 
docker.io  docker.io/nkbvs/debian-10_i386_cpp_base                                                                 0                 
docker.io  docker.io/quentinjdu21/debian-10                                                                        0                 
docker.io  docker.io/mitting/debian-10-web                                                                         0                 
docker.io  docker.io/freehackquest/debian-10-for-cpp-build        Docker with preinstalled g++, cmake, make, m...  0                 
docker.io  docker.io/lbelmarletelier/debian-10-builder                                                             0                 
docker.io  docker.io/armpits/debian-10-armhf                      Docker import of minimal Debian chroot.          0                 
docker.io  docker.io/arthurpicht/debian-10                        Basic debian 10 "Buster" image with extended...  0  

To download the Nginx image, run the following command:

podman pull nginx

You should see the following output:

✔ docker.io/library/nginx:latest
Trying to pull docker.io/library/nginx:latest...
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob 596b1d696923 done  
Copying blob 8283eee92e2f done  
Copying blob 69692152171a done  
Copying blob febe5bd23e98 done  
Copying blob 351ad75a6cfa done  
Copying blob 30afc0b18f67 done  
Copying config d1a364dc54 done  
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
d1a364dc548d5357f0da3268c888e1971bbdb957ee3f028fe7194f1d61c6fdee

To list all downloaded images, run the following command:

podman images

You should see the following output:

REPOSITORY               TAG     IMAGE ID      CREATED      SIZE
docker.io/library/nginx  latest  d1a364dc548d  2 weeks ago  137 MB

To create a new container from the Nginx image, run the following command:

podman  run -dit nginx

You can now check the Nginx container with the following command:

podman ps

You should see the following output:

CONTAINER ID  IMAGE                           COMMAND               CREATED         STATUS             PORTS   NAMES
c1692863973d  docker.io/library/nginx:latest  nginx -g daemon o...  20 seconds ago  Up 19 seconds ago          priceless_lewin

To create a new image from the running Nginx container, run the following command:

podman commit --author "Author Name Hitesh" c1692863973d docker.io/library/new-nginx

You should see the following output:

Getting image source signatures
Copying blob 02c055ef67f5 skipped: already exists  
Copying blob 766fe2c3fc08 skipped: already exists  
Copying blob 83634f76e732 skipped: already exists  
Copying blob 134e19b2fac5 skipped: already exists  
Copying blob 5c865c78bc96 skipped: already exists  
Copying blob 075508cf8f04 skipped: already exists  
Copying blob af6431b8bf0b done  
Copying config bf2a70efe3 done  
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
bf2a70efe38f99b363f8f0b7dfd395d3aec81571ed03ac7b0898954379f16768

You can now check the newly created image with the following command:

podman images

You should see the following output:

REPOSITORY                   TAG     IMAGE ID      CREATED         SIZE
docker.io/library/new-nginx  latest  bf2a70efe38f  22 seconds ago  137 MB
docker.io/library/nginx      latest  d1a364dc548d  2 weeks ago     137 MB

To stop the running container, run the following command:

podman stop container-id

To remove the running container, run the following command:

podman remove container-id

To stop and start the latest container, run the following command:

podman stop --latest
podman start --latest

To remove the latest container, run the following command:

podman rm --latest

Conclusion

In the above guide, you learned how to install and use Podman on an Ubuntu server. Podman is a great tool for managing containers and images – give it a try on your dedicated server hosting account from Atlantic.Net. You can explore the Podman for more interesting features.