Podman Cheat Sheet

May 21, 2025·
Derek Armstrong portrait
Derek Armstrong
· 1 min read

Start and Stop Containers

  • Start a container:

    podman start <container_name_or_id>
    
  • Stop a container:

    podman stop <container_name_or_id>
    

Build an Image

  • Build an image from a Dockerfile:

    podman build -t <image_name:tag> .
    

Run a Container

  • Run a container:

    podman run --name <container_name> <image_name:tag>
    
  • Run a container and remove it after it exits:

    podman run --rm <image_name:tag>
    

Remove Containers and Images

  • Remove a container:

    podman rm <container_name_or_id>
    
  • Remove all stopped containers:

    podman container prune
    
  • Remove an image:

    podman rmi <image_name_or_id>
    

Podman Compose (if using podman-compose)

  • Start containers with Podman Compose:

    podman-compose up
    
  • Stop containers with Podman Compose:

    podman-compose down
    
  • Build images with Podman Compose:

    podman-compose build
    

Additional Useful Commands

Inspect

  • Inspect a container (view details about a running or stopped container):

    podman inspect <container_name_or_id>
    

Logs

  • View logs for a container:

    podman logs <container_name_or_id>
    

List Containers and Images

  • List all containers:

    podman ps -a
    
  • List running containers:

    podman ps
    
  • List all images:

    podman images