Containers Without Docker on RHEL/Fedora

Docker is perfectly doing well with the containerization. Since docker uses the Server/Client architecture to run the containers. So, even if I am a client or developer who just wants to create a docker image from Dockerfile I need to start the docker daemon which of course generates some extra overhead on the machine.  Also, a daemon that needs to run on your system, and it needs to run with root privileges which might have certain security implications.

Here now the solution is available where we do not need to start the daemon to create the containers. We can create the images and push them any of the repositories and images are fully compatible to run on any of the environment. 

Podman is an open-source Linux tool for working with containers. That includes containers in registries such as docker.io and quay.io.

let's start with the podman to manage the containers. 

Install the package 

[root@rhel8 ~]# dnf install podman -y 

OR

[root@rhel8 ~]# yum install podman -y 

If still wants to use the docker cli we can install podman-docker package to emulate the docker cli. 

[root@rhel8 ~]# dnf install podman-docker

System information can be checked using the below command. 

[root@rhel8 ~]# podman info 

The command shows the host information and as well as the registries names. 

Default it talks to 

  - registry.redhat.io

  - quay.io

  - docker.io

podman has all and similar commands like docker client. 

[root@rhel8 ~]# podman --help 





[root@rhel8 ~]# podman images 





[root@rhel8 ~]# podman pull ubuntu 

We can start the container also in the same form as we start with the docker.

[root@rhel8 ~]# podman container run -dit -p 8080:80 nginx

Verify the container must be running. 

[root@rhel8 ~]# podman ps 

Web server is available now.

So, now it's no more a Docker container. it is simple a Container.