Run a podman container as a specific non-root user or UID with podman run --user
domain: docs.podman.io · 5 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Run as a symbolic user: podman run --user nobody ubuntu id, or by numeric UID: podman run --user 1000 ubuntu id.
Specify the group too with user:group or UID:GID: podman run --user 1000:1000 someimage whoami.
For rootless setups where a bind-mounted volume must stay writable by the container user, combine --user with --userns=keep-id (e.g. podman run --user mysql --userns=keep-id -v ~/data:/var/lib/mysql:Z mariadb).
Pin the exact host identity mapping with --userns=keep-id:uid=999,gid=999.
Verify the effective identity inside the image: podman run --rm --user 1000 ubuntu id.
Known gotchas
Without --user the command runs as the user declared by the image's USER instruction (commonly root).
--user accepts symbolic or numeric user and optionally a group; both may be given.
When --user is used, image /etc/passwd generation can be overridden with --no-passwd or --passwd-entry to control the entries written.
Combine --user with --userns=keep-id so host files bind-mounted into the container stay writable by the intended non-root user.
For predictable UID mapping in rootless podman use --userns=keep-id with an explicit uid/gid.
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