Podman Cheat Sheet

Daemonless container commands with Podman, covering rootless containers, pods, and Docker-compatible CLI usage.

2 PagesIntermediateFeb 18, 2026

Basic Commands

Podman's CLI closely mirrors the Docker CLI.

bash

podman pull nginx                 # Pull an imagepodman run -d -p 8080:80 nginx    # Run a containerpodman ps                         # List running containerspodman ps -a                      # List all containerspodman stop <id>                  # Stop a containerpodman rm <id>                    # Remove a containerpodman images                     # List local imagespodman logs -f <id>                # Follow container logs

Podman vs Docker

What sets Podman apart architecturally.

Daemonless- No background dockerd; podman forks a child process per container directly
Rootless by default- Runs containers as an unprivileged user via user namespaces, reducing attack surface
Pods- Native concept: a group of containers sharing network/IPC namespaces, mirroring Kubernetes pods
systemd integration- podman generate systemd (or quadlet) creates unit files to manage containers as services
Docker CLI alias- alias docker=podman works for most common commands due to compatible CLI syntax
No central API socket required- Optional podman system service exposes a Docker-compatible REST API when needed

Working with Pods

Group multiple containers to share a network namespace.

bash

podman pod create --name mypod -p 8080:80    # Create a podpodman run -dt --pod mypod --name web nginx  # Add container to podpodman run -dt --pod mypod --name cache redispodman pod ps                                # List podspodman pod stop mypod                        # Stop all containers in podpodman pod rm mypod                          # Remove the pod

Compose & systemd

Run Compose files and generate persistent services.

bash

podman-compose up -d                     # Run a docker-compose.yml with Podmanpodman generate systemd --new --name web --files  # Generate unit filesystemctl --user enable --now container-web.service

Pro Tip

Prefer rootless Podman for CI runners and dev machines: without root privileges, a container breakout cannot escalate to host root, unlike a rootful Docker daemon.

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