Podman: Containers Without a Background Daemon
Podman isn’t trying to reinvent containers. It just strips them down to what actually matters — processes, namespaces, isolation — without hiding what’s going on. No central service. No mandatory root access. No background daemon sitting between the user and the container runtime.
Unlike Docker, it doesn’t run in the background. Start a container, it shows up as a child process. Stop it, it’s gone. That’s it. On systems where keeping things clean and minimal matters, Podman starts to make a lot of sense.
What Podman Actually Does Well
| Feature | Practical Impact |
| No persistent daemon | Nothing runs unless a container is active. No sockets left behind. |
| Rootless by design | Regular users can start containers without elevated permissions. |
| Compatible CLI | Most commands look like Docker’s. In many scripts, only an alias is needed. |
| Systemd-ready | Easily exports containers or pods as unit files. Simple to manage at boot. |
| Pod support | Groups containers under shared network/IPC. Useful for service chains. |
| SELinux/AppArmor aware | Hooks into host security layers out of the box. |
| OCI image format | Pulls from Docker Hub or any compliant registry. No format translation needed. |
| Optional REST socket | Can expose an API for tooling, but doesn’t require it. |
Environment and Setup Considerations
Podman works best on Linux — that’s where all its features are native. Fedora and RHEL treat it as a default now, but it runs just fine on Debian-based systems too. It’s available for macOS and Windows as well, though behind a thin virtualization layer.
There’s no heavy install process. On most systems:
sudo apt install podman
And it’s usable immediately. No need to start or enable anything.
Want to use it in place of Docker?
alias docker=podman
Rootless mode is default on modern distros with user namespaces. On older ones, some tweaks might be needed — adjusting /etc/subuid and /etc/subgid.
Typical Post-Install Behavior
What happens after it’s installed? Not much — until a container runs. That’s the point. Containers behave like regular processes. They don’t hide in a daemon.
Admins often:
– Pull images directly from Docker Hub
– Use ‘podman run’ in automation scripts
– Generate systemd unit files from containers
– Group services into pods when shared networking is needed
– Replace Docker in CI jobs or test environments without running an extra daemon
Where Podman Shows Up in Real Environments
It’s not rare to see Podman in small CI runners, dev laptops, or hardened Linux VMs where audit logs and process trees matter. In some shops, it’s replaced Docker completely, especially where developers and ops share the same machines.
Some teams only use it for running containers in cron jobs or automated scripts. Others rely on the pod concept to simulate basic Kubernetes-like setups — without Kubernetes.
Where It Still Has Gaps
– Compose support is incomplete — podman-compose exists, but it’s not a full drop-in replacement
– macOS and Windows depend on virtualized backends (like podman machine). Not quite native
– GUI tools still assume Docker is present. Podman is mostly CLI-centric
– Integration with third-party orchestration tools isn’t always smooth
Final Word
Podman isn’t trying to be slick or universal. It’s more like a plumbing tool — solid, predictable, and Unix-minded. For admins who want to know exactly what’s running, under whose UID, and how it behaves — it’s a strong choice.
