Podman Overview
What Arcane manages on Podman hosts, what each feature needs, and who can use it.
On Podman environments, Arcane adds a Podman sidebar section for what the Docker-compatible API lacks: Pods, Quadlets, Kubernetes YAML, Podman secrets, and Podman auto-update. Container, image, volume, and network pages work as on Docker. To set up, see Run Arcane on Podman.
Version requirements
Section titled “Version requirements”Arcane detects Podman automatically and only shows what the host supports.
| Feature | Needs |
|---|---|
| Pods, Kube, Secrets | Any supported Podman version |
| Quadlets | Podman 5.8 or later |
| Filtering Quadlets by pod or status | Podman 6.0 or later |
| Grouping Quadlets into an application | Podman 6.1 or later |
| Auto-update with per-container report | Podman 6.2 or later |
| Auto-update on older versions | Access to systemd (see below) |
| Starting and stopping Quadlet units | Podman 5.8 or later and access to systemd |
Access to systemd
Section titled “Access to systemd”Starting, stopping, and restarting Quadlets, and auto-update before Podman 6.2, go through systemd. Arcane reaches it over D-Bus:
- Rootful Podman uses the system bus at
/run/dbus/system_bus_socket. Mount it into the Arcane container and run Arcane as root (PUID=0,PGID=0) so it’s allowed to manage system services. - Rootless Podman uses the user’s session bus at
/run/user/<UID>/bus. Mount it, setDBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS, and run Arcane as that user. Run Arcane on Podman has the full settings.
Without the bus, everything else works; Quadlet start, stop, and restart are disabled, and the Quadlet and Auto Update pages show why.
When DOCKER_HOST points to a Podman engine on another machine (tcp:// or ssh://), Arcane ignores its local bus, which would control the wrong host. For systemd actions there, set DBUS_SYSTEM_BUS_ADDRESS or DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS to that machine’s bus. Usually it’s simpler to run an Arcane Agent on the Podman machine.
Multiple environments
Section titled “Multiple environments”Podman pages appear when at least one environment runs Podman, and cover every Podman environment you can read. Pods, Quadlets, and Secrets combine them with an Environment column; Auto Update runs on all at once. Kube works on one host, so pick its Environment first.
Permissions
Section titled “Permissions”Podman permissions are scoped per environment. See Roles.
| Permission | Allows |
|---|---|
podman:read |
View pods, Quadlets, secrets, and Podman info |
podman:pods |
Create, start, stop, delete, and prune pods |
podman:quadlets |
Install, edit, and delete Quadlets |
podman:quadlets:lifecycle |
Start, stop, and restart Quadlet units |
podman:kube |
Play, tear down, and generate Kubernetes YAML |
podman:secrets |
Create, replace, and delete Podman secrets |
podman:autoupdate |
Run Podman auto-update |
The Kube, Auto Update, and Install quadlet pages also need podman:read.
Everything here is also in arcane-cli podman. See CLI Commands.