Podman is a powerful container engine that allows developers to develop, manage, and run Open Container Initiative (OCI) containers and container images on their Linux systems. It provides a Docker-compatible command line interface, making it a popular choice for those familiar with Docker. In this guide, we will walk you through the steps to install Podman on AlmaLinux 8, a free and open-source Linux distribution.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have a Linux system running AlmaLinux 8. You should also have administrative privileges or access to the root user.

Step 1: Installing Podman

To install Podman on AlmaLinux 8, follow these steps:

  1. Open a terminal on your AlmaLinux 8 system.
  2. Run the following command to install Podman:
   dnf install podman

This command will download and install the latest version of Podman along with any necessary dependencies.

  1. Enter your password when prompted and press Enter to continue.
  2. Wait for the installation process to complete. Once finished, you will see the output similar to the following:
   Last metadata expiration check: 0:12:59 ago on Wed 24 Mar 2021 02:53:34 PM EDT.
Dependencies resolved.
Package Arch Version Repo Size
Installing:
podman x86_64 2.2.1-7.module_el8.3.0+2046+68fb1526 appstream 14 M
Installing dependencies:
checkpolicy x86_64 2.9-1.el8 baseos 347 k
conmon x86_64 2:2.0.22-3.module_el8.3.0+2046+68fb1526 appstream 49 k
container-selinux noarch 2:2.155.0-1.module_el8.3.0+2046+68fb1526

This output confirms the successful installation of Podman and its dependencies.

Step 2: Verifying the Installation

To verify that Podman has been installed correctly on your AlmaLinux 8 system, follow these steps:

  1. Open a terminal on your AlmaLinux 8 system.
  2. Run the following command to check the version of Podman:
   podman --version

This command will display the version of Podman installed on your system. The output should look similar to this:

   podman version 2.2.1

This confirms that Podman is installed and ready to use.

  1. You can also view detailed information about the installed package by running the following command:
   rpm -qi podman

This command will provide detailed information about the Podman package, including the version, release, architecture, and other details.

Name : podman
Version : 2.2.1
Release : 7.module_el8.3.0+2046+68fb1526
Architecture: x86_64
Install Date: Wed 24 Mar 2021 03:08:13 PM EDT
Group : Unspecified
Size : 54173702
License : ASL 2.0 and GPLv3+
Signature : RSA/SHA256, Thu 11 Mar 2021 05:18:31 AM EST, Key ID 51d6647ec21ad6ea

This information can be helpful for troubleshooting or verifying the installation.

Step 3: Checking the Host Information

To check the host information of your AlmaLinux 8 system, follow these steps:

  1. Open a terminal on your AlmaLinux 8 system.
  2. Run the following command to view the host information:
   podman info

This command will display detailed information about the host system, including the architecture, version of Buildah (a tool for building OCI container images), cgroup manager, cgroup version, and more.

host:
arch: amd64
buildahVersion:1.18.0
cgroupManager: systemd
cgroupVersion: v1
conmon:
package: conmon-2.0.22-3.module_el8.3.0+2046+68fb1526.x86_64
path:/usr/bin/conmon
version:'conmon version 2.0.22, commit: 6ee084d291d27329fd643c149a21f8c00a35eb10'
cpus:2
distribution: distribution:'"almalinux"'

This information can be useful for understanding the underlying system and troubleshooting any issues that may arise.

Step 4: Downloading an Alpine Image

To download an Alpine image using Podman, follow these steps:

  1. Open a terminal on your AlmaLinux 8 system.
  2. Run the following command to download the Alpine image:
   podman pull alpine

This command will pull the latest version of the Alpine image from the default registry.

   Trying to pull docker.io/library/alpine:latest...
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob ba3557a56b15 done
Copying config 28f6e27057 done
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
28f6e27057430ed2a40dbdd50d2736a3f0a295924016e294938110eeb8439818

The output will show the progress of the image download and provide a unique identifier for the downloaded image.

Step 5: Checking the List of Downloaded Images

To check the list of downloaded images using Podman, follow these steps:

  1. Open a terminal on your AlmaLinux 8 system.
  2. Run the following command to view the list of downloaded images:
   podman images

This command will display a list of all the downloaded images on your system, including the repository, tag, image ID, creation date, and size.

REPOSITORY                  TAG       IMAGE ID      CREATED        SIZE
docker.io/library/alpine   latest    28f6e2705743  4 weeks ago    5.88 MB

You can use this information to manage your downloaded images and containers.

Conclusion

In this guide, we walked you through the steps to install Podman on AlmaLinux 8. We covered the installation process, verifying the installation, checking the host information, downloading an Alpine image, and checking the list of downloaded images. Podman is a powerful tool for managing containers on your Linux system, and with these steps, you should now be able to get started with using Podman on AlmaLinux 8.

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