podman-generate-systemd(1)

NAME

podman-generate-systemd - Generate systemd unit file(s) for a container. Not supported for the remote client

SYNOPSIS

podman generate systemd [options] container|pod

DESCRIPTION

podman generate systemd will create a systemd unit file that can be used to control a container or pod. By default, the command will print the content of the unit files to stdout.

Note that this command is not supported for the remote client.

OPTIONS:

--files, -f

Generate files instead of printing to stdout. The generated files are named {container,pod}-{ID,name}.service and will be placed in the current working directory.

Note: On a system with SELinux enabled, the generated files will inherit contexts from the current working directory. Depending on the SELinux setup, changes to the generated files using restorecon, chcon, or semanage may be required to allow systemd to access these files. Alternatively, use the -Z option when running mv or cp.

--name, -n

Use the name of the container for the start, stop, and description in the unit file

--new

Create a new container via podman-run instead of starting an existing one. This option relies on container configuration files, which may not map directly to podman CLI flags; please review the generated output carefully before placing in production. Since we use systemd Type=forking service, using this option will force the container run with the detached param -d

--time, -t=value

Override the default stop timeout for the container with the given value.

--restart-policy=policy

Set the systemd restart policy. The restart-policy must be one of: "no", "on-success", "on-failure", "on-abnormal", "on-watchdog", "on-abort", or "always". The default policy is on-failure.

Examples

Create and print a systemd unit file for a container running nginx with an always restart policy and 1-second timeout to stdout.

    $ podman create --name nginx nginx:latest
    $ podman generate systemd --restart-policy=always -t 1 nginx
    # container-de1e3223b1b888bc02d0962dd6cb5855eb00734061013ffdd3479d225abacdc6.service
    # autogenerated by Podman 1.8.0
    # Wed Mar 09 09:46:45 CEST 2020
    [Unit]
    Description=Podman container-de1e3223b1b888bc02d0962dd6cb5855eb00734061013ffdd3479d225abacdc6.service
    Documentation=man:podman-generate-systemd(1)
    [Service]
    Restart=always
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/podman start de1e3223b1b888bc02d0962dd6cb5855eb00734061013ffdd3479d225abacdc6
    ExecStop=/usr/bin/podman stop -t 1 de1e3223b1b888bc02d0962dd6cb5855eb00734061013ffdd3479d225abacdc6
    KillMode=none
    Type=forking
    PIDFile=/run/user/1000/overlay-containers/de1e3223b1b888bc02d0962dd6cb5855eb00734061013ffdd3479d225abacdc6/userdata/conmon.pid
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target default.target

Create systemd unit files for a pod with two simple alpine containers. Note that these container services cannot be started or stopped individually via systemctl; they are managed by the pod service. You can still use systemctl status or journalctl to examine them.

    $ podman pod create --name systemd-pod
    $ podman create --pod systemd-pod alpine top
    $ podman create --pod systemd-pod alpine top
    $ podman generate systemd --files --name systemd-pod
    /home/user/pod-systemd-pod.service
    /home/user/container-amazing_chandrasekhar.service
    /home/user/container-jolly_shtern.service
    $ cat pod-systemd-pod.service
    # pod-systemd-pod.service
    # autogenerated by Podman 1.8.0
    # Wed Mar 09 09:52:37 CEST 2020
    [Unit]
    Description=Podman pod-systemd-pod.service
    Documentation=man:podman-generate-systemd(1)
    Requires=container-amazing_chandrasekhar.service container-jolly_shtern.service
    Before=container-amazing_chandrasekhar.service container-jolly_shtern.service
    [Service]
    Restart=on-failure
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/podman start 77a818221650-infra
    ExecStop=/usr/bin/podman stop -t 10 77a818221650-infra
    KillMode=none
    Type=forking
    PIDFile=/run/user/1000/overlay-containers/ccfd5c71a088768774ca7bd05888d55cc287698dde06f475c8b02f696a25adcd/userdata/conmon.pid
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target default.target

SEE ALSO

podman(1), podman-container(1), systemctl(1), systemd.unit(5), systemd.service(5)

HISTORY

August 2019, Updated with pod support by Valentin Rothberg (rothberg at redhat dot com) April 2019, Originally compiled by Brent Baude (bbaude at redhat dot com)