About this project

Podman (the POD MANager) is a tool designed for managing OCI containers, images, volumes, and pods (groups of containers sharing resources). It is based on the libpod library for container lifecycle management. Key capabilities include: - Image Management: Supports multiple container image formats (OCI and Docker), including pulling, pushing, and creating images via Containerfiles or Dockerfiles. - Lifecycle Management: Handles container creation, execution, checkpointing/restoring (via CRIU), and removal. - Rootless Operation: Allows running containers and pods without root or elevated privileges using user namespaces for improved security. - Daemonless Architecture: Operates without a central manager daemon, reducing resource utilization at idle and improving security. - Networking: Manages container networking using Netavark and Aardvark-dns. - Compatibility: Provides a Docker-compatible CLI and a REST API for integration. - Cross-Platform: Runs natively on Linux and on macOS or Windows via a Podman-managed virtual machine. Podman integrates with other OCI projects such as Buildah for image builds, crun/runc for runtimes, and Skopeo for specialized image signing and transport.