podman-machine(1)

okay bestie, welcome to the podman-machine(1) page from the General Commands Manual ✨ — we're talking Podman's virtual machine, and it's lowkey a whole main-character situation 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

podman-machine — literally the command set for managing Podman's virtual machine 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

the shape of it is exactly this, no cap:

podman machine subcommand

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so podman machine is a set of subcommands that manage Podman's virtual machine. That's the whole assignment, and it ate 🔥

Podman on MacOS and Windows requires a virtual machine. Why? Because containers are Linux — containers do not run on any other OS because containers' core functionality are tied to the Linux kernel. So yeah, podman machine must be used to manage MacOS and Windows machines, but it can be optionally used on Linux too 🐧

bestie, important: all podman machine commands are rootless only 👑

NOTE: the podman-machine configuration file is managed under the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/containers/podman/machine/ directory. Changing the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable while the machines are running can lead to unexpected behavior. so like… don't do that mid-vibe, okay? 😭

Podman machine behaviour can be modified via the [machine] section in the containers.conf(5) file. cute, customizable, iconic ✨

Podman is based on virtual machine providers. The following table describes which providers are supported by platform. The asterisk denotes the default provider for the platform ⭐ so here's the provider tea:

• Linux → qemu*
• MacOS → libkrun*
• MacOS → applehv
• Windows → wsl*
• Windows → hyperv

the * means default provider for that platform, periodt 💅

---

🌈 SUBCOMMANDS 🌈

each one is giving command, man page, and what it does — here's the full lineup, no skips:

• cp — man page podman-machine-cp(1) — securely copy contents between the host and the virtual machine 🎀
• info — man page podman-machine-info(1) — display machine host info 🦋
• init — man page podman-machine-init(1) — initialize a new virtual machine ✨
• inspect — man page podman-machine-inspect(1) — inspect one or more virtual machines 🔍
• list — man page podman-machine-list(1) — list virtual machines 📋
• os — man page podman-machine-os(1) — manage a Podman virtual machine's OS 🧚
• reset — man page podman-machine-reset(1) — reset Podman machines and environment 🔄
• restart — man page podman-machine-restart(1) — restart a virtual machine 🔁
• rm — man page podman-machine-rm(1) — remove a virtual machine 🗑️
• set — man page podman-machine-set(1) — set a virtual machine setting ⚙️
• ssh — man page podman-machine-ssh(1) — SSH into a virtual machine 💻
• start — man page podman-machine-start(1) — start a virtual machine ▶️
• stop — man page podman-machine-stop(1) — stop a virtual machine ⏹️

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

go read these too, bestie, they're all part of the lore:

• podman(1)
• podman-machine-cp(1)
• podman-machine-info(1)
• podman-machine-init(1)
• podman-machine-list(1)
• podman-machine-os(1)
• podman-machine-rm(1)
• podman-machine-ssh(1)
• podman-machine-start(1)
• podman-machine-stop(1)
• podman-machine-inspect(1)
• podman-machine-reset(1)
• podman-machine-restart(1)
• containers.conf(5)

🛟 Troubleshooting

see podman-troubleshooting(7) for solutions to common issues 🫶

💜 HISTORY 💜

• March 2021 — originally compiled by Ashley Cui acui@redhat.com ⟨mailto:acui@redhat.com⟩ 🎀

later bestie 💖 — this was podman-machine(1) from the General Commands Manual, with the history stamped March 2021 ✨