Podman Debug

Diagnose container issues, inspect logs, and troubleshoot Podman containers.

Instructions

1. Run podman ps -a to see all containers and their states
2. Identify the problematic container by name or ID
3. Check container logs with podman logs <container>
4. Inspect container config with podman inspect <container>
5. If needed, exec into running container: podman exec -it <container> /bin/sh
6. Report findings and suggest fixes

Common diagnostic commands

# Container status and health
podman ps -a --format "table {{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}\t{{.Ports}}"
podman healthcheck run <container>

# Logs with timestamps
podman logs -t --since 10m <container>
podman logs -f <container>  # follow

# Resource usage
podman stats --no-stream

# Inspect specific fields
podman inspect -f '{{.State.ExitCode}}' <container>
podman inspect -f '{{.State.Error}}' <container>
podman inspect -f '{{json .NetworkSettings}}' <container>

# Container processes
podman top <container>

# Events
podman events --since 1h --filter container=<name>

Common issues and solutions

| Symptom | Check | Likely Cause | | ------------------- | ---------------------- | ---------------------------- | | Exit code 137 | dmesg \| grep -i oom | OOM killed - increase memory | | Exit code 1 | podman logs | Application error | | Exit code 126 | Entrypoint permissions | chmod +x on entrypoint | | Exit code 127 | Entrypoint path | Command not found in image | | Network unreachable | podman network ls | Network not attached |

Rules

• MUST check logs before suggesting fixes
• MUST report exit codes and their meaning
• Never restart containers without user approval
• Never remove containers or volumes without explicit request
• Always suggest --rm flag for debug containers