Run a podman container under systemd with a Quadlet .container unit file
domain: dev-infra · 5 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Write a Quadlet file, e.g. ~/.config/containers/systemd/myapp.container, with a [Container] section setting Image= and optionally Exec=.
Add a [Service] section for restart policy, e.g. Restart=always (or set TimeoutStartSec for slow image pulls).
Tell systemd to regenerate: `systemctl --user daemon-reload`, then start with `systemctl --user start myapp.service`.
Enable at boot by putting an [Install] section (WantedBy=default.target) in the unit or a drop-in, since the generated service is transient.
List your generated units with `systemctl --user list-unit-files`; check cgroup v2 with `podman info --format {{.Host.CgroupsVersion}}`.
Known gotchas
Quadlet uses a systemd generator; it reads files in /etc/containers/systemd, /usr/share/containers/systemd, and ~/.config/containers/systemd (rootless) and produces .service units.
Image pulls or builds can exceed the 90s default start timeout; raise [Service] TimeoutStartSec.
.container/.kube units default to Type=notify; a .pod defaults to forking.
You cannot set a non-root user via the systemd [User]/[Group]/DynamicUser options in a Quadlet; rootless requires placing the file in a rootless search path.
The generated units are transient — `systemctl enable` alone does not persist them; the [Install] section is applied by the generator.
Unit files are re-read on daemon-reload and at boot.
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