Quadlet definition files of network & volume are not detected from user directory?

[a7md0]

I'm facing the same issue that was discussed in #19838. I'm starting a rootless container with generated service using Podman Quadlet, the container definition file is created under ~/.config/containers/systemd/ along with the .volume and .network definition files.

I'm able to do systemctl --user daemon-reload which picks my container definition, but once I try to start the container it fails due to (code=exited, status=125). After some digging (no idea how to check the actual error that caused exit code 125), I found out that the referenced Network and Volume in the container file are not created yet.

My files looks like the below (I tried to give the volume name and it failed prevsiouly, so I kept it without a name and used the inferred names:

[Volume]

[Network]

Referring to the selected answer in #19838, I ran this command and in the output it looks like it's not scanning my user files and only the global system paths for Quadlet files? Is there something I'm missing to have it generate from my user files as well?

$ /usr/libexec/podman/quadlet --dryrun
quadlet-generator[3905292]: No files parsed from [/run/containers/systemd /etc/containers/systemd /usr/share/containers/systemd]

Podman version:

• APIVersion: 5.4.0
• Built: 1747167536
• BuiltTime: Tue May 13 20:18:56 2025
• GitCommit: ""
• GoVersion: go1.23.6 (Red Hat 1.23.6-2.el9_6)
• Os: linux
• OsArch: linux/arm64
• Version: 5.4.0

[ygalblum]

Since you're running a rootless Quadlet, you need to tell that to the dryrun command as well. Please run:

/usr/libexec/podman/quadlet -dryrun -user

If you need help understanding the output, please paste all the unit files and the output of the dryryn.

[a7md0]

Thank you @ygalblum, I missed the -user part of this command. The output showed the service is generated for the volume and network Quadlet definition file, but I had to manaully start these services even though the container Quadlet file reference them in Requires and After (not sure if this is the intended way to start the services manually or not).

For anyone visiting the issue, below what worked for me, definition files under my user directory ~/.config/containers/systemd/

# ~/.config/containers/systemd/backend-app.network
[Network]

# ~/.config/containers/systemd/backend-app.volume
[Volume]

# ~/.config/containers/systemd/backend-app.container
[Unit]
Description=My Backend Application Container
Requires=backend-app.network backend-app.volume
After=network-pre.target backend-app.network backend-app.volume

[Container]
ContainerName=backend-app
Image=docker.io/a7md0/myapp:latest

PublishPort=8080:80/tcp
PublishPort=8443:443/tcp

# When referring to the actual name of the network/volume they start with `systemd` prefix
Network=systemd-backend-app
Volume=systemd-backend-app:/app/storage:rw,z

AddCapability=NET_BIND_SERVICE

[Service]
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target default.target

Then I had to start the network, volume and container like the below (different naming than what I refer from the container)

systemctl --user start backend-app-network
systemctl --user start backend-app-volume
systemctl --user start backend-app

The actual names of the network/volume

$ podman network list
NETWORK ID    NAME                       DRIVER
2f259bab93aa  podman                     bridge
11c4b7565c25  systemd-backend-app  bridge

$ podman volume list
DRIVER      VOLUME NAME
local       systemd-backend-app

[ygalblum]

Hi,

I'm not sure which Podman version you are using, but the support for translating dependencies set in the Unit section was only added in v5.5.X.

Having said that, in your case, the correct way is changing the names of the network and volume in the .container unit to the corresponding .network and .volume units. Once set, Quadlet will handle the translation and adding the dependencies.

So, the .container should be:

# ~/.config/containers/systemd/backend-app.container
[Unit]
Description=My Backend Application Container
Requires=backend-app.network backend-app.volume
After=network-pre.target

[Container]
ContainerName=backend-app
Image=docker.io/a7md0/myapp:latest

PublishPort=8080:80/tcp
PublishPort=8443:443/tcp

# Reference the corresponding unit files and let Quadlet translate
Network= backend-app.network
Volume=backend-app.volume:/app/storage:rw,z

AddCapability=NET_BIND_SERVICE

[Service]
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target default.target

I comment, I'm not sure if this: After=network-pre.target is required. By default, Quadlet adds a dependency in network either network-online.target for rootful or a dedicated service: podman-user-wait-network-online.service for rootless

[a7md0]

I'm actually using Podman 5.4.0, but setting the Volume and Network to the file name worked for me. Only that I still have to manually start the network/volume services, I'll retest this on 5.5.X once it's available on my distro

As for the After=network-pre.target I faced an issue when the host machine is rebooted, the container won't start for some reason. It was solved after I started to use this in the Unit section, but I'm not sure if this was even the root issue.