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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