Ubuntu Manpage: podman-generate-systemd - [DEPRECATED] Generate systemd unit file(s) for a container or pod

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Provided by: podman_4.9.3+ds1-1ubuntu0.2_amd64

NAME

       podman-generate-systemd - [DEPRECATED] Generate systemd unit file(s) for a container or pod

SYNOPSIS

       podman generate systemd [options] container|pod

DESCRIPTION

DEPRECATED: Note: podman generate systemd is deprecated. We recommend using [Quadlet] files when running
Podman containers or pods under systemd.

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

Generating unit files for a pod requires the pod to be created with an infra container (see
--infra=true). An infra container runs across the entire lifespan of a pod and is hence required for
systemd to manage the life cycle of the pod's main unit.

• Note: When using this command with the remote client, including Mac and Windows (excluding WSL2)
machines, place the generated units on the remote system. Moreover, make sure that the
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR environment variable is set. If unset, set it via export
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$(id -u)._

• Note: The generated podman run command contains an --sdnotify option with the value taken from
the container. If the container does not have any explicitly set value or the value is set to
ignore, the value conmon is used. The reason for overriding the default value container is that
almost no container workloads send notify messages. Systemd waits for a ready message that
never comes, if the value container is used for a container that does not send notify messages.
The use of the default value might have been unintentional by the user, therefore the overridden
default value._

Kubernetes Integration
A Kubernetes YAML can be executed in systemd via the podman-kube@.service systemd template. The
template's argument is the path to the YAML file. Given a workload.yaml file in the home directory, it
can be executed as follows:

$ escaped=$(systemd-escape ~/workload.yaml)
$ systemctl --user start podman-kube@$escaped.service
$ systemctl --user is-active podman-kube@$escaped.service
active

OPTIONS

--after=dependency_name
Add the systemd unit after (After=) option, that ordering dependencies between the list of dependencies
and this service. This option may be specified more than once.

User-defined dependencies are appended to the generated unit file, but any existing options needed or
defined by default (e.g., online.target) are not removed or overridden.

--container-prefix=prefix
Set the systemd unit name prefix for containers. The default is container.

--env, -e=env
Set environment variables to the systemd unit files.

If an environment variable is specified without a value, Podman checks the host environment for a value
and sets the variable only if it is set on the host. As a special case, if an environment variable ending
in * is specified without a value, Podman searches the host environment for variables starting with the
prefix and adds those variables to the systemd unit files.

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

Note: On a system with SELinux enabled, the generated files inherits 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.

--format=format
Print the created units in the specified format (json). If --files is specified, the paths to the created
files are printed instead of the unit content.

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

--new
This option yields unit files that do not expect containers and pods to exist. Instead, new containers
and pods are created based on their configuration files. The unit files are created best effort and may
need further editing; please review the generated files carefully before using them in production.

Note that --new only works on containers and pods created directly via Podman (i.e., podman [container]
{create,run} or podman pod create). It does not work on containers or pods created via the REST API or
via podman kube play. For podman kube play, use the podman-kube@.service systemd template instead.

--no-header
Do not generate the header including meta data such as the Podman version and the timestamp.

--pod-prefix=prefix
Set the systemd unit name prefix for pods. The default is pod.

--requires=dependency_name
Set the systemd unit requires (Requires=) option. Similar to wants, but declares a stronger requirement
dependency.

--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 unless the
container was created with a custom restart policy.

Note that generating a unit without --new on a container with a custom restart policy can lead to issues
on shutdown; systemd attempts to stop the unit while Podman tries to restart it. Creating the container
without --restart and using the --restart-policy option when generating the unit file is recommended.

--restart-sec=time
Set the systemd service restartsec value. Configures the time to sleep before restarting a service (as
configured with restart-policy). Takes a value in seconds.

--separator=separator
Set the systemd unit name separator between the name/id of a container/pod and the prefix. The default is
-.

--start-timeout=value
Override the default start timeout for the container with the given value in seconds.

--stop-timeout=value
Override the default stop timeout for the container with the given value in seconds.

--template
Add template specifiers to run multiple services from the systemd unit file.

Note that if --new was not set to true, it is set to true by default. However, the command fails if --new
is set to false explicitly.

--wants=dependency_name
Add the systemd unit wants (Wants=) option, that this service is (weak) dependent on. This option may be
specified more than once. This option does not influence the order in which services are started or
stopped.