Ubuntu Manpage: podman-machine-init - Initialize a new virtual machine

Provided by: podman_4.3.1+ds1-5ubuntu1_amd64

NAME

       podman-machine-init - Initialize a new virtual machine

SYNOPSIS

       podman machine init [options] [name]

DESCRIPTION

       Initialize a new virtual machine for Podman.

       Rootless only.

       Podman  on  MacOS  and  Windows requires a virtual machine. This is because containers are
       Linux - containers do not run on any other OS because containers' core  functionality  are
       tied  to  the  Linux  kernel.  Podman  machine  must  be  used to manage MacOS and Windows
       machines, but can be optionally used on Linux.

       podman machine init initializes a new Linux virtual machine where containers are run.  SSH
       keys  are  automatically  generated  to  access the VM, and system connections to the root
       account and a user account inside the VM are added.

       By default, the VM distribution is Fedora CoreOS.  Fedora CoreOS upgrades come  out  every
       14  days  and are detected and installed automatically. The VM will be rebooted during the
       upgrade.  For more information on updates and advanced configuration, please see the  FCOS
       update docs here and here.

OPTIONS

--cpus=number
Number of CPUs.

--disk-size=number
Size of the disk for the guest VM in GB.

--help
Print usage statement.

--ignition-path
Fully qualified path of the ignition file.

If an ignition file is provided, the file will be copied into the user's CONF_DIR and
renamed. Additionally, no SSH keys will be generated nor will a system connection be
made. It is assumed that the user will do these things manually or handle otherwise.

--image-path
Fully qualified path or URL to the VM image. Can also be set to testing, next, or stable
to pull down default image. Defaults to testing.

--memory, -m=number
Memory (in MB).

--now
Start the virtual machine immediately after it has been initialized.

--rootful
Whether this machine should prefer rootful (true) or rootless (false) container execution.
This option will also determine the remote connection default if there is no existing
remote connection configurations.

API forwarding, if available, will follow this setting.

--timezone
Set the timezone for the machine and containers. Valid values are local or a timezone
such as America/Chicago. A value of local, which is the default, means to use the
timezone of the machine host.

--username
Username to use for executing commands in remote VM. Default value is core for FCOS and
user for Fedora (default on Windows hosts). Should match the one used inside the resulting
VM image.

--volume, -v=source:target[:options]
Mounts a volume from source to target.

Create a mount. If /host-dir:/machine-dir is specified as the *source:target*, Podman
mounts host-dir in the host to machine-dir in the Podman machine.

Additional options may be specified as a comma-separated string. Recognized options are: *
ro: mount volume read-only * rw: mount volume read/write (default) *
security_model=[model]: specify 9p security model (see below)

The 9p security model [determines]
https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/9psetup#Starting_the_Guest_directly if and how the 9p
filesystem translates some filesystem operations before actual storage on the host. The
default value of mapped-xattr specifies that 9p store symlinks and some file attributes as
extended attributes on the host. This is suitable when the host and the guest do not need
to interoperate on the shared filesystem, but has caveats for actual shared access;
notably, symlinks on the host are not usable on the guest and vice versa. If
interoperability is required, then choose none instead, but keep in mind that the guest
will not be able to do things that the user running the virtual machine cannot do, e.g.
create files owned by another user. Using none is almost certainly the best choice for
read-only volumes.

Example: -v "$HOME/git:$HOME/git:ro,security_model=none"

Default volume mounts are defined in containers.conf. Unless changed, the default values
is $HOME:$HOME.

--volume-driver
Driver to use for mounting volumes from the host, such as virtfs.

EXAMPLES

              $ podman machine init
              $ podman machine init myvm
              $ podman machine init --rootful
              $ podman machine init --disk-size 50
              $ podman machine init --memory=1024 myvm
              $ podman machine init -v /Users:/mnt/Users

HISTORY