podman-install

This composite action installs Podman on GitHub-hosted runners for both Linux (Ubuntu) and Windows. It's designed to be a simple, one-stop solution for setting up Podman in your CI workflows.

Features

The action is cross-platform, working for both Ubuntu and Windows runners (including ARM).

On Windows, it uses the official Podman MSI installer, automatically fetching the latest version. You can specify a specific Podman version if your CI needs to be pinned. After installation, the action automatically runs podman machine init --now to ensure the Podman machine is running and ready for use in subsequent steps.

On Linux, the action installs Podman v5.x and its key dependencies (like CRIU) from Ubuntu distribution repositories or the openSUSE Kubic repository, ensuring you get a more modern version than what ships with the GitHub runner images.

Inputs

Input	Platform	Required	Default	Description
ubuntu-repository	Linux	no	questing	Ubuntu distro source: questing, resolute, noble, or kubic
ubuntu-version	Linux	no	23.10	Ubuntu version codename for the Kubic repository (only used when ubuntu-repository is kubic)
allow-upgrade	Linux	no	false	Allow upgrade of the Ubuntu system (may be needed for some repository/distro combinations)
start-service	Linux	no	false	Start the Podman socket service (systemctl --user start podman.socket) after installation
podman-version-input	Windows	no	latest	Podman version: latest or a specific version (e.g. 5.6.2)
install-scope	Windows	no	user	MSI installation scope: user (no admin required) or machine (requires admin)
github-token	Windows	no	--	GitHub token for authenticated API requests (avoids rate limiting)

Usage

Basic Usage

- name: Install Podman
  uses: redhat-actions/podman-install@v1

With GitHub Token (Recommended for Windows)

- name: Install Podman
  uses: redhat-actions/podman-install@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Install Specific Podman Version on Windows

- name: Install Podman 5.6.2
  uses: redhat-actions/podman-install@v1
  with:
    podman-version-input: '5.6.2'
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Install Podman and Start the Socket Service (Linux)

- name: Install Podman with socket service
  uses: redhat-actions/podman-install@v1
  with:
    start-service: 'true'

Install Podman on Ubuntu from Kubic Repository

- name: Install Podman on Ubuntu 24.04 from Kubic
  uses: redhat-actions/podman-install@v1
  with:
    ubuntu-version: '23.10'
    ubuntu-repository: 'kubic'

Install Podman from Questing Repository

- name: Install Podman on Ubuntu from Questing repository
  uses: redhat-actions/podman-install@v1
  with:
    ubuntu-repository: 'questing'

Sub-action: Fetch Podman Version for Windows

The composite sub-action at .github/actions/fetch-latest-podman-version-windows resolves a Podman Windows installer download URL without installing it. Use it when your workflow needs the URL -- for example, to download and install Podman on a remote Windows host.

The main podman-install action uses this sub-action internally on Windows runners. It currently passes through latest or a specific release version only. To consume nightly CI builds, call the sub-action directly (see examples below).

Version resolution

version_input	Source	Primary output
latest	podman-container-tools/podman GitHub Release	download_url (public MSI/asset URL)
v5.6.1 / 5.6.1	Same, pinned tag	download_url (public MSI/asset URL)
https://...	URL used as-is (validated for CR/LF)	download_url
nightly / main	Latest successful release-pipeline-validation.yml run; artifact win-msi-<arch>-main-<sha>	download_url (Actions artifact archive URL)

file_type applies to release downloads only. Nightly resolution always targets the MSI CI artifact (win-msi-<arch>-main-<sha>).

Release assets are public download URLs. Nightly download_url is the GitHub Actions archive_download_url for the matching artifact (a zip archive containing the MSI). Downloading that URL requires an authenticated request with a token that has actions: read on podman-container-tools/podman.

Requirements for nightly

• github_token must be provided (typically ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}, or a PAT with access to the Podman repo artifacts)
• The workflow job needs permissions.actions: read
• The runner must have gh and jq available (pre-installed on ubuntu-latest and windows-latest)

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
version_input	yes	latest	Version selector (see table above)
architecture	no	amd64	Windows architecture: amd64 or arm64
file_type	no	msi	Release asset type: msi, setup.exe, installer.exe, or remote.zip
github_token	no*	--	GitHub token; *required for nightly

Outputs

Output	Description
version	Resolved version (e.g. v5.6.1 or main-696772b)
download_url	Installer download URL (public release asset, or authenticated Actions artifact archive for nightly)
is_latest	true when version_input was latest
is_nightly	true when a CI nightly artifact URL was resolved

Fetch latest stable release

permissions:
  contents: read

steps:
  - id: fetch-podman
    uses: redhat-actions/podman-install/.github/actions/fetch-latest-podman-version-windows@v1
    with:
      version_input: latest
      file_type: msi
      github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  - run: curl -LO '${{ steps.fetch-podman.outputs.download_url }}'

Fetch a specific release

  - id: fetch-podman
    uses: redhat-actions/podman-install/.github/actions/fetch-latest-podman-version-windows@v1
    with:
      version_input: v5.6.1
      architecture: amd64
      file_type: msi

Fetch nightly CI build

permissions:
  contents: read
  actions: read

steps:
  - id: fetch-podman
    uses: redhat-actions/podman-install/.github/actions/fetch-latest-podman-version-windows@v1
    with:
      version_input: nightly
      architecture: amd64
      github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  - run: |
      echo "version=${{ steps.fetch-podman.outputs.version }}"
      curl -L -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" \
        -o podman-nightly.zip \
        '${{ steps.fetch-podman.outputs.download_url }}'
      unzip -qo podman-nightly.zip

Pin the sub-action to a commit SHA instead of @v1 in production workflows.