No podman.sock when using alpine linux

[docentYT]

Issue Description

Socket podman.sock does not exist in alpine linux.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Install podman on alpine linux.

Describe the results you received

# find / -name podman.sock

does not return anything.

Describe the results you expected

A socket should exist somewhere, as it does on debian, for example: /run/podman/podman.sock

podman info output

host:
  arch: amd64
  buildahVersion: 1.35.4
  cgroupControllers:
  - cpuset
  - cpu
  - io
  - memory
  - hugetlb
  - pids
  cgroupManager: cgroupfs
  cgroupVersion: v2
  conmon:
    package: conmon-2.1.12-r0
    path: /usr/bin/conmon
    version: 'conmon version 2.1.12, commit: unknown'
  cpuUtilization:
    idlePercent: 99.7
    systemPercent: 0.19
    userPercent: 0.11
  cpus: 2
  databaseBackend: sqlite
  distribution:
    distribution: alpine
    version: 3.20.2
  eventLogger: file
  freeLocks: 2048
  hostname: podman.local
  idMappings:
    gidmap: null
    uidmap: null
  kernel: 6.6.42-0-lts
  linkmode: dynamic
  logDriver: k8s-file
  memFree: 1843785728
  memTotal: 2071240704
  networkBackend: netavark
  networkBackendInfo:
    backend: netavark
    dns:
      package: aardvark-dns-1.10.0-r0
      path: /usr/libexec/podman/aardvark-dns
      version: aardvark-dns 1.10.0
    package: netavark-1.10.3-r0
    path: /usr/libexec/podman/netavark
    version: netavark 1.10.3
  ociRuntime:
    name: crun
    package: crun-1.15-r0
    path: /usr/bin/crun
    version: |-
      crun version 1.15
      commit: e6eacaf4034e84185fd8780ac9262bbf57082278
      rundir: /run/crun
      spec: 1.0.0
      +SELINUX +APPARMOR +CAP +SECCOMP +EBPF +YAJL
  os: linux
  pasta:
    executable: /usr/bin/pasta
    package: passt-2024.06.07-r0
    version: |
      pasta unknown version
      Copyright Red Hat
      GNU General Public License, version 2 or later
        <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html>
      This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
      There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
  remoteSocket:
    exists: false
    path: /run/podman/podman.sock
  security:
    apparmorEnabled: false
    capabilities: CAP_CHOWN,CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE,CAP_FOWNER,CAP_FSETID,CAP_KILL,CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE,CAP_SETFCAP,CAP_SETGID,CAP_SETPCAP,CAP_SETUID,CAP_SYS_CHROOT
    rootless: false
    seccompEnabled: true
    seccompProfilePath: /etc/containers/seccomp.json
    selinuxEnabled: false
  serviceIsRemote: false
  slirp4netns:
    executable: ""
    package: ""
    version: ""
  swapFree: 4141871104
  swapTotal: 4141871104
  uptime: 0h 27m 14.00s
  variant: ""
plugins:
  authorization: null
  log:
  - k8s-file
  - none
  - passthrough
  network:
  - bridge
  - macvlan
  - ipvlan
  volume:
  - local
registries:
  search:
  - docker.io
store:
  configFile: /etc/containers/storage.conf
  containerStore:
    number: 0
    paused: 0
    running: 0
    stopped: 0
  graphDriverName: overlay
  graphOptions:
    overlay.mountopt: nodev
  graphRoot: /var/lib/containers/storage
  graphRootAllocated: 62930079744
  graphRootUsed: 236658688
  graphStatus:
    Backing Filesystem: extfs
    Native Overlay Diff: "true"
    Supports d_type: "true"
    Supports shifting: "true"
    Supports volatile: "true"
    Using metacopy: "false"
  imageCopyTmpDir: /var/tmp
  imageStore:
    number: 1
  runRoot: /run/containers/storage
  transientStore: false
  volumePath: /var/lib/containers/storage/volumes
version:
  APIVersion: 5.0.3
  Built: 1720373660
  BuiltTime: Sun Jul  7 19:34:20 2024
  GitCommit: ""
  GoVersion: go1.22.5
  Os: linux
  OsArch: linux/amd64
  Version: 5.0.3

Podman in a container

No

Privileged Or Rootless

Privileged

Upstream Latest Release

Yes

Additional environment details

Proxmox: pve-manager/8.2.2/9355359cd7afbae4 (running kernel: 6.8.4-2-pve)
Alpine on VM.

Additional information

No response

[Luap99]

you need to run the podman service in order to get the API socket podman system service

On systemd distros you can enable the podman.socket unit as we support socket activation (which is what debian seems to be doing by default)

[docentYT]

Running podman system service does not solve the problem.

Alpine linux is not systemd based.

[afbjorklund]

Use OpenRC instead: service podman start

See https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Podman

[docentYT]

service podman start resolved the issue.

# service podman start
 * Configured as rootful service
 * /run/podman: correcting mode
 * Starting Podman API service ...                                                                                [ ok ]
 * Starting containers with restart policy set to always ...                                                      [ ok ]
 
# find / -name podman.sock
/run/podman/podman.sock

I don't see any mention of running this service on the alpine linux wiki or in the podman installation manual.

[afbjorklund]

No, it seems to be missing. It was on the Docker page, though. https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Docker

Maybe their wiki could be improved? It is possible it only has: https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/OpenRC

Note that you don't need the podman.sock to run it locally.

You only need the socket, to use the API or access remotely.

[afbjorklund]

The configuration for /etc/init.d/podman is in /etc/conf.d/podman, by the way. There you can enable rootless.

# See podman-system-service(1) for service description
# and available options.
#podman_opts="--time 0"

# API endpoint in URI form. Leave empty to use defaults.
#podman_uri=""

# Setting root user will start rootful service.
# Use any other user for rootless mode.
#podman_user="root"