Podman Application Template

This is the alias template I generally use to turn container applications into commandline applications useable in windows terminal contexts.

Setup

1. Change the registry.io line to what you want to use

   podman run --rm -v "%cd%":/bear -w /bear -it docker.io/grafana/grizzly:latest %*

2. (optional) Use the built in user if your container application comes with it

   podman run --rm -u user -v "%cd%":/home/user/app -w /home/user/app -it registry.io/application:latest %*

3. Change the name of the file to the cli application like grr.bat

4. Place the file in a folder somewhere like C:\aliases

5. Make sure this folder is in your system path. See this how-to for directions.

Pros

• Works in pwsh, cmd, and vscode/vscodium!
• Use cli applications that are not natively built or available for dos!
• Keeps apps up to date with the latest tag! (Just watch your image count!)
• Using the -i flag you can pipe data into your "fake" application on the command line!

Cons

• Scoped to local dir
• App prompt might not work corrctly (you will need to add the -t flag which might break the -i pipeing)

The main drawback is that you are scoped to the local directory you executed the program in.

This works

C:> podman-application ./local/file

This won't

C:> podman-application ../../i-can't-reach-above-the-cupboard.txt

Tips

How to refer to my home directory

You might want to mount a .config folder from your home directory under dos.

You can do so with the %USERPROFILE% variable

-v %USERPROFILE%\.aws:/root/.aws

See this if you have issues with your %USERPROFILE% pointing somewhare else

How to add self signed CA certs to your image.

This is posible for most images. Here I provide steps for Alpine based images.

Alpine

1. Add your cert chain as seprate .pem encoded files to a workdir

   This is all the CA Roots and Intermeidiate CAs

   can also be formated as a .crt bundle

2. Drop into a alpine terminal while mounting your workdir

   C:> podman run -v C:\workdir:/workdir --rm -it alpine:latest

3. Copy your cert chain to /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/

   /> cp /workdir/* /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/

4. Run update-ca-certificates(8)

   /> update-ca-certificates

5. Retrive the /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

   /> cp /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt /workdir/

6. Put the ca-certificates.crt bundle from your C:\workdir somewhere on your computer like C:\containercerts\alpine

7. Update your bash alias to mount the certifiacte bundle as RO in your images

   -v C:\containercerts\alpine\ca-certificates.crt:/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt:ro

   podman run --rm -v C:\containercerts\alpine\ca-certificates.crt:/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt:ro -v "%cd%":/app -w /app -i registry.io/application:latest %*