GP is talking about podman with generated systemd unit files (a.k.a. podman quadlet[0]), not the docker-compose-compatible podman-compose ...and I'd agree, systemd can manage services on a system just fine, and even better than any compose workload ever could.
journald will help with logs, and the pull policy[1] helps with mutable tags. What help do you need with "orphan containers"?
I'm not OP, but the whole podman compose topic gets quite confusing, as initially Podman didn't seem to know what they were trying to do. I've given some more context around it in previous comments.
You shouldn't be using podman compose. It's flimsy and doesn't work very well (at least it was last time I used it prior to Podman v3), and I'm pretty sure it doesn't have Red Hat's direct support.
Instead, activate Podman's Docker API compatibility socket, and simply set your `DOCKER_HOST` env var to that socket, and from there you can use your general docker client commands such as `docker`, `docker compose` and anything else that uses the Docker API. There are very few things that don't work with this, and the few things that don't are advanced setups.
For what it's worth, podman has also a thin wrapper (podman compose) which executes `docker-compose` or the old `podman-compose`. The docs should explain which it picks.
Note:
- `podman-compose` is an early attempt at remaking `docker-compose` v1 but for Podman. This used parsed the compose config and converts them to podman commands, and executes it.
- Later Podman wrote a Docker compatible socket instead, which can work with most docker clis that accept a `DOCKER_HOST` argument, including `docker` and `docker-compose` (both v1 and v2)
- `podman compose` is a thin wrapper that automatically selects `docker-compose` or `podman-compose` depending on which is installed.
Generally all you need is podman, docker-compose (the v2 binary), and that's it. From there you can use `podman` and/or `podman compose`.
One of the nastiest aspects of migrating from docker to podman really is "what to do about docker compose?" coz there are three wildly divergent ways to answer that all of which really suck under certain specific circumstances.
Im no fan of docker and podman by itself is a step up but orchestration headaches are enough to ruin that.
I don't understand what you're asking here. The answer to that is probably nothing. That is unless you want:
- systemd to manage your containers
- You want to use K8s primitives (which are mostly compatible)
I'm unsure what the 3rd method is you're talking about. The nice thing about Podman's compose API is you don't have to change anything (mostly). You can point all your docker tooling to Podman's socket, and it'll (mostly) magically work.
* use systemd, red hat's favorite kitchen sink for handling everything from setting up sound services to mounting your home dir to logging so why not this too i guess.
* docker compose where i have to run a whole separate podman service to lie to docker compose about not actually being docker.
* podman compose which would be the obvious solution if it didnt just plain suck.
> * use systemd, red hat's favorite kitchen sink for handling everything
Systemd is a tool for managing services. Containers are services. Why require an entirely separate bespoke service manager when you're already running one?
> * docker compose where i have to run a whole separate podman service to lie to docker compose about not actually being docker.
This is the same system state as using docker compose with docker: you have a client program speaking to a backing daemon. Only difference here is the Podman service, being daemonless, only runs when needed (assuming you're setting up things the documented way by enabling the podman socket).
> * podman compose which would be the obvious solution if it didnt just plain suck.
Yeah I haven't had the best luck with it either. But part of the reason it's languished is that it makes more sense to just reimplement the Compose spec on the backend rather than re-invent the wheel and create a new compose client as well.
There's also the fourth option of writing Kubernetes yaml and applying that with `podman kube play`. Honestly this is probably closer to being the podman equivalent of docker compose but since it involves writing The Bad YAML (kubernetes) rather than The Good YAML (compose) most people don't use it.
It's a tool for user age verification that happens to be something you can use to manage services.
Did you miss my point about it being a filthy kitchen sink?
>This is the same system state as using docker compose with docker
One of the major selling points of podman is that you dont need a daemon. except maybe yes you do because podman compose sucks so toss that selling point in the trash.
This shit is also incredibly fiddly. Ever had "docker compose" and "docker-compose" do subtly different things which drive your team mate to pull their hair out? I have.
Podman should stop trying to piggyback off docker if it's trying to be an alternative.
>Yeah I haven't had the best luck with it either. But part of the reason it's languished is that it makes more sense to just reimplement the Compose spec on the backend
Personally I suspect it languished because Red Hat simply cant abide the idea that somebody out there might avoid using systemd for something.
They happily built a docker compose to quadlets converter but they cant bring themselves to make podman compose not be a piece of shit even though it wouldnt be a lot of work.
This is what stopped me from picking up Podman more, all our devs use Docker and have been writing compose files for years now. When the response at the time was "you're using Podman wrong, Quadlets are the hot stuff now" it just felt like too big a risk and commitment to jump to at the time. Have things settled more? Getting away from Docker is a bigger priority nowadays for us.
Docker (Compose) has some quirks compared to Podman (Compose), e.g. when using gvisor or a lot of internal networks. Depending on what you do your milage will vary, though.
Agreed. I found compose overlay files merged list values differently between the Docker and Podman versions, which was a PITA in teams running Docker & Linux dev machines.
FWIW, most of these issues were recently fixed in podman-compose. I can now use the current git version of podman-compose interchangeably with docker-compose.
And one nice thing about podman-compose is that it's ONE PYTHON FILE. You can just copy it into your source tree.
Podman in general is much higher quality than Docker. For the last 5 years, Docker was throwing all kinds of stuff against the wall to see what sticks, neglecting foundational issues.
Moreover, podman-compose integrates really easily with systemd. You can create a service by just running "podman-compose systemd" and following the prompt! No quadlet nonsense required.
Then you learn podman can't even list containers for all users properly and it kind of starts smelling like the whole ip4 vs ip6 debacle: bunch of vocal proponents wanting you to subject yourself to endless torture for no discernible reason.
journald will help with logs, and the pull policy[1] helps with mutable tags. What help do you need with "orphan containers"?
[0]: https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-quadlet.1.h...
[1]: https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-image.unit....