Podman 5.0 Container Management Tool Released

Podman 5.0 has been released, marking the innovative container engine’s first major update in two years. Thanks to a complete overhaul of the code and significant enhancements in hypervisor support, this release signifies a major milestone, especially for users on Windows and Mac platforms.

For those unfamiliar, Podman is a tool for managing OCI containers and pods that offers a docker-compatible command-line interface. Unlike Docker, however, Podman operates without a daemon and can run containers as a non-root user, enhancing security and flexibility.

Podman 5.0 Highlights

The highlight of Podman 5.0 is undoubtedly the complete overhaul of the podman machine commands. This functionality allows users to launch a Linux Virtual Machine on Windows and Mac systems, enabling them to run Linux containers seamlessly.

The rewrite not only improves performance and stability but also enhances code sharing across different VM providers, simplifying future maintenance and upgrades. Additionally, support for the Apple hypervisor on Mac has been introduced, significantly boosting stability, boot times, and file-sharing performance.

A notable convenience feature, the new podman machine reset command, makes it easier than ever to remove VMs managed by Podman. Moreover, this version brings enhancements to the handling of the “containers.conf” configuration file, ensuring user modifications are preserved.

Podman 5.0 also ships with significant changes and deprecations in order to refine the user experience. A key update is the adoption of Pasta as the default backend for rootless networking, a decision driven by its superior performance.

The shift away from the BoltDB database backend in favor of SQLite, initiated in Podman version 4.9, has been cemented, offering enhanced stability for new installations.

Podman 5’s networking changes are also noteworthy. Most platforms no longer support CNI networking; instead, they use Netavark, Podman’s own networking stack, which promises to meet or exceed CNI’s capabilities.

Another critical area of improvement is Docker compatibility. Podman 5.0 introduces several adjustments to ensure smoother interoperability with Docker, such as modifying the output of podman inspect to align with its Docker counterpart more closely.

Additionally, Podman 5.0 deprecates support for cgroups v1, paving the way for a future where running on systems without cgroups v2 will not be possible, further aligning with modern Linux distributions’ focus on security and resource management.

Lastly, the release is packed with enhancements, including configurable retries for image pulls and pushes, new features for Quadlet supporting template units and pods, and numerous bug fixes.

Refer to the release announcement for detailed information about all the novelties and improvements that Podman 5.0 brings, or check out its breaking changes in detail here.