How to Install and Use Podman on Debian 11

# Introduction

Podman is a free, open-source and daemonless tool designed to make it easy to find, run, build, share and deploy applications using Open Containers Initiative (OCI) Containers and Container Images. It provides a command-line tool for managing containers and images, volumes mounted into those containers, and pods made from groups of containers. Podman uses libpod library to manage pods, containers, container images, and container volumes.

In this post, we will show you how to install and use Podman to deploy and manage containers on Debian 11.

# Requirements

A server running Debian 11 operating system.
A root password is set up on your server.

# Install Podman

By default, the Podman package is included in the Debian 11 default repository. You can install it using the following command:

apt-get install podman -y

Once the Podman is installed, you can verify the installed version of Podman with the following command:

podman --version

You will get the following output:

podman version 3.0.1

To gather more information about Podman, run the following command:

podman info

You will get the following output:

host:
  arch: amd64
  buildahVersion: 1.19.6
  cgroupManager: systemd
  cgroupVersion: v2
  conmon:
    package: 'conmon: /usr/bin/conmon'
    path: /usr/bin/conmon
    version: 'conmon version 2.0.25, commit: unknown'
  cpus: 2
  distribution:
    distribution: debian
    version: "11"
  eventLogger: journald
  hostname: debian11
  idMappings:
    gidmap: null
    uidmap: null
  kernel: 5.10.0-8-amd64
  linkmode: dynamic

# Configure Podman

Podman uses registries to push and pull images over the internet. So you will need to define it in the Podman registries file.

nano /etc/containers/registries.conf

Add the following lines at the end of the file:

[registries.search]
registries = ['docker.io', 'quay.io', 'registry.access.redhat.com']
[registries.insecure]
registries = []
[registries.block]
registries = []

Save and close the file when you are finished.

# Pulling an Image from the Registry

Before pulling any images, you will need to search the image for their availability across various registries. For example, search the Apache2 image using the following command:

podman search apache2

You should see all apache2 images in the following output:

INDEX      NAME                                         DESCRIPTION                                      STARS   OFFICIAL  AUTOMATED
docker.io  docker.io/firespring/apache2-php             Based on Ubuntu 16.04. Contains php and a ba...  11                [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/antage/apache2-php5                Docker image for running Apache 2.x with PHP...  24                [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/oberonamsterdam/apache24-fpm       Default Oberon apache setup using PHP-FPM, r...  2                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/teamrock/apache2                   TeamRock's Apache2                               8                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/ascdc/apache2-php56                apache2-php56                                    2                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/antage/apache2-php7                Docker image for running Apache 2.x with PHP...  1                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/kstaken/apache2                    This a small Apache2 build that can be exten...  3                 
docker.io  docker.io/ascdc/apache2-php7                 apache2 + php7                                   5                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/jmferrer/apache2-reverse-proxy     Dockerized apache2 reverse proxy service.        2                 
docker.io  docker.io/marvambass/apache2-ssl-secure      apache2 - (marvambass/apache2-ssl-secure) (+...  5                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/solution360/apache2-php7-ioncube   Apache2.4 with PHP7 and ioncube.                 2                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/caladreas/apache2-openidc-docker   Naieve docker container configuration for Ap...  1                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/garelp/apache2-galette             Galette installation with php7 and apache2 f...  1                 
docker.io  docker.io/mhenry07/apache2-utils             Alpine image with apache2-utils (htpasswd, e...  2                 
docker.io  docker.io/enonicio/apache2                   Base Docker image for apache2                    1                 [OK]
docker.io  docker.io/navanieethks/apache2-nav           apache2 test container                           0                 
docker.io  docker.io/enoniccloud/apache2-letsencrypt    Apache2 container with letsencrypt integrate...  1                 [OK]

Now, use any on the registry from the above output and pull it using the following command:

podman pull docker.io/enonicio/apache2

Once the Apache2 image has been downloaded, you will get the following output:

Trying to pull docker.io/enonicio/apache2:latest...
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob f5e83780ccda done  
Copying blob 1eb2c989bc04 done  
Copying blob 2dec31d7323c done  
Copying blob 050aa9ae81a9 done  
Copying blob 286f32949bdc done  
Copying blob b402972d58df done  
Copying blob 13c965b03bf5 done  
Copying blob 63d6284a7719 done  
Copying blob 323483328ff9 done  
Copying blob 0a8e151da91a done  
Copying blob 14bb6c07ac49 done  
Copying blob 13466d328a5d done  
Copying blob 99d1f30a09ca done  
Copying blob 156c6aec6e4a done  
Copying config 8087d2ab62 done  
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
8087d2ab62bcb38ea6c7cfac7360206ef4bca3493eb0d71931c20319ab6a7378

You can now verify the downloaded image using the following command:

podman images

You should see the following output:

REPOSITORY                  TAG     IMAGE ID      CREATED      SIZE
docker.io/enonicio/apache2  latest  8087d2ab62bc  3 years ago  267 MB

# Run a COntainer from an Image

You can now create and run a container from the downloaded image using the following syntax:

podman run -d --name container-name image

For example, run the following command to create a container named web from an Apache image:

podman run  -d --name web docker.io/enonicio/apache2

Once the container has been created, you can check it using the following command:

podman ps

You will get the running container in the following output:

CONTAINER ID  IMAGE                       COMMAND               CREATED        STATUS            PORTS   NAMES
fbbf0b7ed29f  docker.io/enonicio/apache2  /bin/sh -c apache...  7 seconds ago  Up 7 seconds ago          web

To check the container log, run the following command:

podman logs web

You should see the following output:

[Tue Oct 19 14:30:00.210131 2021] [core:notice] [pid 2:tid 139865785894784] AH00094: Command line: 'apache2 -D FOREGROUND'

# Start and Stop a Container

You can start and stop any container easily using the Podman.

For example, to stop the container named web use the following command:

podman stop web

To start the container named web, run the following command:

podman start web

If you want to list all running and stopped containers, run the following command:

podman ps -a

# Connect the Shell of a Container

Podman also allows you to create a container and access their shell from the command-line.

To do so, first pull the ubuntu image using the following command:

podman pull docker.io/takkatakka/lftp

You will get the following output:

Trying to pull docker.io/takkatakka/lftp:latest...
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob d967c497ce23 done  
Copying blob 67de21feec18 done  
Copying blob a9b30c108bda done  
Copying blob d3938036b19c done  
Copying blob 6267a2c9cabc done  
Copying blob 817da545be2b done  
Copying config e1f5e88d6a done  
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
e1f5e88d6a190f73a8ca156f32ac9c890b768666291217e9f93805eaef8618b3

Now, create a container and connect it to their shell with the following command:

podman run --name ubuntu -it docker.io/takkatakka/lftp  /bin/bash

Once the container has been started, you will get into the shell as shown below:

root@290e979f59b3:/#

You can now run any commands inside the Ubuntu container. For example, to check the Ubuntu version of running container using the following command:

root@290e979f59b3:/# cat /etc/lsb-release

You will get the following output:

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS"

If you want to exit from the Container shell, run the following command:

root@290e979f59b3:/#

# Display Container Statistics

If you want to check the stats of the running container, run the following command:

podman stats

To display the intricate details about a container, run the following command:

podman inspect ubuntu

You will get the following output:

[
    {
        "Id": "290e979f59b36b2721fc08358499e52743b80d70fd0d8c4cba201dea3270d214",
        "Created": "2021-10-19T14:33:44.899825285Z",
        "Path": "/bin/bash",
        "Args": [
            "/bin/bash"
        ],
        "State": {
            "OciVersion": "1.0.2-dev",
            "Status": "exited",
            "Running": false,
            "Paused": false,
            "Restarting": false,
            "OOMKilled": false,
            "Dead": false,
            "Pid": 0,
            "ExitCode": 0,
            "Error": "",
            "StartedAt": "2021-10-19T14:33:45.151655924Z",
            "FinishedAt": "2021-10-19T14:34:28.069994897Z",
            "Healthcheck": {
                "Status": "",
                "FailingStreak": 0,

# Remove the Container

If you want to remove a container, you will need to stop it first.

To stop the container named web, run the following command:

podman stop web

Next, remove a container using the following command:

podman rm web

Next, remove the container image using the following command:

podman rmi imageid

You can see the ImageId using the podman images command.

If you want to stop and remove the latest container, run the following command:

podman stop --latest
podman rm --latest

# Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Podman on Debian 11. You can now easily create, run, maintain and secure containers using Podman. For more information, visit the Podman documentation.

SnapShooter Learning Center

How to Install and Use Podman on Debian 11