Podman Cheat Sheet

Podman Cheat Sheet

May 21, 2025·

Derek Armstrong

· 2 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
```

Key Takeaways

Podman is a drop-in replacement for Docker with a CLI that maps 1:1 for common container operations
podman-compose handles multi-container setups, but requires the separate podman-compose package
Rootless podman is the default and preferred mode — no daemon running as root is a security improvement over Docker
Commands group by lifecycle: start/stop, build/run, remove, inspect/logs, and list

Most of my containers run rootless, and I can’t recall a single one I’ve managed where a running root daemon was actually justified. What’s your setup — pure rootless, or is something still talking to a daemon?

Last updated on May 21, 2025

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