Podman and Dev Containers on macOS

These steps extend Using Podman (Devcontainer) in the repository README when you work on macOS with Podman and Dev Containers.

You may need to install the missing krunkit package before installing Podman, and set export DOCKER_HOST=unix:///var/run/docker.sock in your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc (or export it in the terminal) before using devcontainer commands.

1. Stop and remove any Podman machines

podman machine stop 2>/dev/null && podman machine rm -f 2>/dev/null

2. Delete all Podman configuration and VM data

rm -rf ~/.config/containers ~/.local/share/containers ~/.cache/containers && rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/io.podman* 2>/dev/null || true && rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Podman* 2>/dev/null || true && rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/io.podman* 2>/dev/null || true

3. Uninstall Homebrew Podman and Podman Desktop

brew uninstall -f podman podman-desktop 2>/dev/null && brew cleanup

4. Install krunkit (Podman 5.8.0)

Podman 5.8.0 can require krunkit.

brew tap slp/krunkit && brew install krunkit && krunkit --version

5. Install Podman CLI and Podman Desktop

brew install podman && brew install --cask podman-desktop

6. Initialize a new QEMU VM for Podman (example: 8 GB RAM)

podman machine init --cpus 4 --memory 8192 --disk-size 100

7. Export a Docker-compatible socket for Dev Containers

echo 'export DOCKER_HOST=unix:///var/run/docker.sock' >> ~/.zshrc && echo 'export DOCKER_HOST=unix:///var/run/docker.sock' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.zshrc && source ~/.bashrc

8. Start the VM and list machines

podman machine stop && podman machine start && podman machine list

9. Start the project

From the repository root:

devcontainer up --workspace-folder .