Provided by: podman_3.4.4+ds1-1ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

       podman-auto-update - Auto update containers according to their auto-update policy

SYNOPSIS

       podman auto-update [options]

DESCRIPTION

       podman  auto-update  looks  up  containers with a specified io.containers.autoupdate label
       (i.e., the auto-update policy).

       If the label is present and set to registry,  Podman  reaches  out  to  the  corresponding
       registry  to  check  if  the  image has been updated. The label image is an alternative to
       registry maintained for backwards compatibility.  An image is considered  updated  if  the
       digest  in  the  local storage is different than the one of the remote image.  If an image
       must be updated, Podman pulls  it  down  and  restarts  the  systemd  unit  executing  the
       container.

       The    registry    policy    requires    a    fully-qualified   image   reference   (e.g.,
       quay.io/podman/stable:latest) to be used to create the  container.   This  enforcement  is
       necessary to know which image to actually check and pull.  If an image ID was used, Podman
       would not know which image to check/pull anymore.

       Alternatively, if the autoupdate label is set to local, Podman will compare  the  image  a
       container  is  using  to  the  image  with  its raw name in local storage.  If an image is
       updated locally, Podman simply restarts the systemd unit executing the container.

       If  io.containers.autoupdate.authfile  label  is  present,  Podman  reaches  out  to   the
       corresponding authfile when pulling images.

       At  container-creation  time, Podman looks up the PODMAN_SYSTEMD_UNIT environment variable
       and stores it verbatim in the container's label.  This variable is now set by all  systemd
       units  generated  by  podman-generate-systemd  and is set to %n (i.e., the name of systemd
       unit starting the container).  This data is then being used in the auto-update sequence to
       instruct systemd (via DBUS) to restart the unit and hence to restart the container.

       Note  that  podman  auto-update  relies  on  systemd. The systemd units are expected to be
       generated with podman-generate-systemd --new, or similar units that create new  containers
       in  order to run the updated images.  Systemd units that start and stop a container cannot
       run a new image.

   Systemd Unit and Timer
       Podman ships with a podman-auto-update.service systemd unit. This unit is triggered  daily
       at  midnight  by the podman-auto-update.timer systemd timer.  The timer can be altered for
       custom time-based updates if desired.  The unit can further be invoked  by  other  systemd
       units  (e.g.,  via  the  dependency  tree)  or  manually  via systemctl start podman-auto-
       update.service.

OPTIONS

   --authfile=path
       Path of the authentication file. Default is ${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/containers/auth.json, which
       is   set   using   podman   login.   If  the  authorization  state  is  not  found  there,
       $HOME/.docker/config.json is checked, which is set using docker login.

       Note: There is also the option to override the default path of the authentication file  by
       setting  the  REGISTRY_AUTH_FILE  environment  variable.  This  can  be  done  with export
       REGISTRY_AUTH_FILE=path.

   --dry-run=true|false
       Check for the availability of new images but do not perform any pull operation or  restart
       any  service  or  container.   The UPDATED field indicates the availability of a new image
       with "pending".

   --format=format
       Change the default output format.  This can be of a supported type like  'json'  or  a  Go
       template.  Valid placeholders for the Go template are listed below:

   --rollback=true|false
       If  restarting  a  systemd unit after updating the image has failed, rollback to using the
       previous image and restart the unit another time.  Default is true.

       Please note that detecting if a systemd unit has failed is  best  done  by  the  container
       sending  the  READY  message  via SDNOTIFY.  This way, restarting the unit will wait until
       having received the message or a timeout kicked in.  Without that, restarting the  systemd
       unit may succeed even if the container has failed shortly after.

       For  a  container  to  send  the  READY  message  via SDNOTIFY it must be created with the
       --sdnotify=container option (see  podman-run(1)).   The  application  running  inside  the
       container  can then execute systemd-notify --ready when ready or use the sdnotify bindings
       of the specific programming language (e.g., sd_notify(3)).

       ┌───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
       │PlaceholderDescription                      │
       ├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
       │.Unit          │ Name of the systemd unit         │
       ├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
       │.ContainerName │ Name of the container            │
       ├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
       │.ContainerID   │ ID of the container              │
       ├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
       │.Container     │ ID and name of the container     │
       ├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
       │.Image         │ Name of the image                │
       ├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
       │.Policy        │ Auto-update   policy   of    the │
       │               │ container                        │
       ├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
       │.Updated       │ Update status: true,false,failed │
       └───────────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘

EXAMPLES

       Autoupdate with registry policy

              ### Start a container
              $ podman run --label "io.containers.autoupdate=registry"
                  --label "io.containers.autoupdate.authfile=/some/authfile.json"
                  -d --name=test registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora:latest sleep infinity
              bc219740a210455fa27deacc96d50a9e20516492f1417507c13ce1533dbdcd9d

              ### Generate a systemd unit for this container
              $ podman generate systemd --new --files bc219740a210455fa27deacc96d50a9e20516492f1417507c13ce1533dbdcd9d
              /home/user/container-bc219740a210455fa27deacc96d50a9e20516492f1417507c13ce1533dbdcd9d.service

              ### Load the new systemd unit and start it
              $ mv ./container-bc219740a210455fa27deacc96d50a9e20516492f1417507c13ce1533dbdcd9d.service ~/.config/systemd/user/container-test.service
              $ systemctl --user daemon-reload

              ### If the previously created containers or pods are using shared resources, such as ports, make sure to remove them before starting the generated systemd units.
              $ podman stop bc219740a210455fa27deacc96d50a9e20516492f1417507c13ce1533dbdcd9d
              $ podman rm bc219740a210455fa27deacc96d50a9e20516492f1417507c13ce1533dbdcd9d

              $ systemctl --user start container-test.service

              ### Check if a newer image is available
              $ podman auto-update --dry-run --format "{{.Image}} {{.Updated}}"
              registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora:latest   pending

              ### Autoupdate the services
              $ podman auto-update
              UNIT                    CONTAINER            IMAGE                                     POLICY      UPDATED
              container-test.service  08fd34e533fd (test)  registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora:latest  registry    false

       Autoupdate with local policy

              ### Start a container
              $ podman run --label "io.containers.autoupdate=local"
                  -d busybox:latest top
              be0889fd06f252a2e5141b37072c6bada68563026cb2b2649f53394d87ccc338

              ### Generate a systemd unit for this container
              $ podman generate systemd --new --files be0889fd06f252a2e5141b37072c6bada68563026cb2b2649f53394d87ccc338
              /home/user/container-be0889fd06f252a2e5141b37072c6bada68563026cb2b2649f53394d87ccc338.service

              ### Load the new systemd unit and start it
              $ mv ./container-be0889fd06f252a2e5141b37072c6bada68563026cb2b2649f53394d87ccc338.service ~/.config/systemd/user
              $ systemctl --user daemon-reload

              ### If the previously created containers or pods are using shared resources, such as ports, make sure to remove them before starting the generated systemd units.
              $ podman stop be0889fd06f252a2e5141b37072c6bada68563026cb2b2649f53394d87ccc338
              $ podman rm be0889fd06f252a2e5141b37072c6bada68563026cb2b2649f53394d87ccc338

              $ systemctl --user start container-be0889fd06f252a2e5141b37072c6bada68563026cb2b2649f53394d87ccc338.service

              ### Get the name of the container
              $ podman ps
              CONTAINER ID  IMAGE                             COMMAND  CREATED        STATUS            PORTS   NAMES
              01f5c8113e84  docker.io/library/busybox:latest  top      2 seconds ago  Up 3 seconds ago          inspiring_galileo

              ### Modify the image
              $ podman commit --change CMD=/bin/bash inspiring_galileo busybox:latest

              ### Auto-update the container
              $ podman auto-update
              [...]

SEE ALSO

       podman(1), podman-generate-systemd(1), podman-run(1), sd_notify(3), systemd.unit(5)

                                                                          podman-auto-update(1)()