Podman Dev Container Compatibility Tests

Platform	OS Version	Podman	devcontainer CLI	Last Tested
Ubuntu	24.04	4.9.3	0.84.0	2026-03-12
Fedora	43	5.8.0	0.84.0	2026-03-12

Automated compatibility tests for VS Code Dev Containers with Podman.

Quick Start

# Install devcontainers CLI
npm install -g @devcontainers/cli

# Run a test
cd tests/minimal
devcontainer up --workspace-folder . --docker-path podman

Minimum devcontainer.json (no special config needed since CLI v0.76.0):

{
  "image": "alpine:latest"
}

---

Background

This repository verifies VS Code Dev Containers compatibility with Podman, addressing:

• #2881 - Container samples not working using podman
• #6759 - Podman Usage Improvements

✅ Resolution

Component	Version	Changes
devcontainers/cli	v0.76.0+	Auto-detects Podman, applies --security-opt label=disable and --userns=keep-id
Dev Containers Extension	0.412.0+	Includes fixed CLI

---

Test Cases

Basic Tests

Test	Description
Minimal	{"image": "alpine:latest"}
Dockerfile	Custom Dockerfile build
Features (Go)	Dev Container Features
Docker in Docker	Nested container support

Sample Tests

Official Dev Container templates verified with Podman:

Sample	Image
Python	mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/python:1-3.12
Node.js	mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/javascript-node:1-22
Go	mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/go:1-1.22

---

Automated Testing

Triggers

Trigger	Description
Daily	00:00 UTC (only if Podman/CLI versions changed)
On Push	When test files are modified
Manual	Via workflow dispatch

Infrastructure

Platform	Infrastructure	Notes
Ubuntu	GitHub-hosted runner	Stable Podman (apt)
Fedora	AWS EC2 spot instance (c6id.large)	Latest Podman, NVMe SSD

---

Running Tests Locally

Prerequisites

• Podman installed and running
• Node.js 18+

macOS

podman machine init && podman machine start
./scripts/run-tests.sh

Linux

./scripts/run-tests.sh

---

Version Compatibility

Dev Containers Extension	devcontainers/cli	Status
0.412.0+	0.76.0+	✅ Fully compatible
< 0.412.0	< 0.76.0	⚠️ Requires manual workarounds

---

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Add new test cases under tests/
3. Submit a pull request

License

MIT License - See LICENSE for details.

Links

• Podman | VS Code Dev Containers | devcontainers/cli | Dev Containers Spec