What is Podman?

Docker bases all its operation on a process (daemon) that manages the containers. This process is getting bigger and bigger over time and this can be a problem. So Podman uses the fork/exec model that allows it to run using a smaller amount of resources.

The main driver of the project is Red Hat that has seen how in this distribution and the derivatives like CentOS have been replaced Docker with Podman. However, the images and many commands are compatible which reduces the learning curve.

One of the main differences is the path where Podman saves the images.

So in short, Podman is a container integration engine. It allows you to manage them in much the same way as Docker. So it’s a simple transition.

Installing Podman on OpenSUSE 15.1

Podman has strong documentation where they explain, among other things, how to install it from the source code. However, let’s do a search within the official OpenSUSE repositories to see.

So, open a terminal session or connect to your server using SSH.

:~$ sudo zypper search podman
Loading repository data…
 Reading installed packages…
 S | Name              | Summary                                                               | Type   
 --+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+--------
   | podman            | Daemon-less container engine for managing containers, pods and images | package
   | podman-cni-config | Basic CNI configuration for podman                                    | packageLoading repository data…
 Reading installed packages…
 S | Name              | Summary                                                               | Type   
 --+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+--------
   | podman            | Daemon-less container engine for managing containers, pods and images | package
   | podman-cni-config | Basic CNI configuration for podman                                    | package

As we can see in the image and in the standard output, Podman is in the official OpenSUSE 15.1 repositories, so it is best to install it from there as there are no external pre-compiled binaries.

To do this, just use the following command:

:~$ sudo zypper in podman
Loading repository data…
 Reading installed packages…
 Resolving package dependencies…
 The following 16 NEW packages are going to be installed:
   catatonit cni cni-plugins criu libcontainers-common libnet9 libostree-1-1 libprotobuf-c1 libpython2_7-1_0 podman podman-cni-config python2-ipaddr python2-protobuf
   python-base runc slirp4netns
 The following 3 recommended packages were automatically selected:
   cni-plugins criu podman-cni-config
 16 new packages to install.
 Overall download size: 36,1 MiB. Already cached: 0 B. After the operation, additional 138,7 MiB will be used.
 Continue? y/n/v/…? shows all options:

At the end of the installation, Podman will be ready for work.

Testing Podman on OpenSUSE 15.1

The installation has been completed but we are going to test the operation.

To do so, I will download the image of Alpine. It is light and simple and will help us to test the operation of Podman.

:~$ sudo podman pull alpine
Trying to pull docker.io/alpine:latest…Getting image source signatures
 Copying blob c9b1b535fdd9: 2.67 MiB / 2.67 MiB [============================] 8s
 Copying config e7d92cdc71fe: 1.48 KiB / 1.48 KiB [==========================] 0s
 Writing manifest to image destination
 Storing signatures
 e7d92cdc71feacf90708cb59182d0df1b911f8ae022d29e8e95d75ca6a99776a

To check all the images that are downloaded to the system, execute the following command:

:~$ sudo podman images 
REPOSITORY                 TAG      IMAGE ID       CREATED       SIZE
 docker.io/library/alpine   latest   e7d92cdc71fe   5 weeks ago   5.86 MB

And finally, run Alpine’s image. Once inside the image, run a command to prove we’re at Alpine:

:~$ sudo podman run -it --rm docker.io/library/alpine /bin/sh
/ # cat /etc/os-release 
NAME="Alpine Linux"
ID=alpine
VERSION_ID=3.11.3
PRETTY_NAME="Alpine Linux v3.11"
HOME_URL="https://alpinelinux.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.alpinelinux.org/"
/ #

So, Podman is ready for the job.

Conclusion

Podman emerges as an alternative to Docker. As I always say, the competition only benefits the user and if Podman improves on the already excellent one made by Docker then it is welcome. So we’ll keep track of the project and now you know how to install it in OpenSUSE 15.1

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