Accessing 'podman machine' API

[timonviola]

Hi

Is it possible to somehow interact with the podman machine commands through this package?

[inknos]

Hey, not at the moment.

What's your use case?

Would you like to work on the implementation? (I can help with PR reviews or discussions it if you like)

[timonviola]

@inknos Thanks for the quick answer.

What's your use case?

Nothing I cannot solve with the CLI right now, so ultimately I can accept relying on that.

Would you like to work on the implementation? (I can help with PR reviews or discussions it if you like)

Sounds interesting, I tried to find the API spec, is it this one? https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/_static/api.html
I don't see anything for the machines, can you give some high-level pointers on how to implement this?

[inknos]

The link you provided brings to the docs for the podman (or rather libpod) API, that's absolutely right.

podman machine is not part of it. Why? While machine is a core part of podman, it also solves specific use cases. I would say that podman machine on Linux solves no problem, but it enables us to run containers on Windows and macOS.

So here's the thing. podman-py is a package that mostly (or solely? I am not sure) conveniently exposes the libpod's RESTful API to python bindings. TBH I am not sure if podman-py does other things which are not part of the API. Although it could, maybe it just does not.

I believe your question is valid, although it has to find a purpose in the implementation, which requires some considerations.

Evaluate a typical use case for podman machine on Windows, for example.
The user has to init, start the machine, then run podman from inside the machine (ie interacting with the unix socket, being in the Linux Kernel user space).

Where does podman-py fit? Say that you install podman-py on Windows to conveniently start the machine. Then another installation would be required inside the machine to run it. So that's tricky and maybe beyond the scope of podman-py (or at least I would subpackage this functionality and run something like pip install podman[machine/utils] to split it from the API package).

Definitely an interesting conversation to have about more podman-py functionalities and features for version 6

[timonviola]

Thanks for the detailed answer - it makes a lot of sense that podman machine is only relevant for macOS and Windows.
I also see your point (and agree) that podman-py defines itself as a library of bindings to use the RESTful API.

[apyrgio]

Where does podman-py fit? Say that you install podman-py on Windows to conveniently start the machine. Then another installation would be required inside the machine to run it.

I may be missing something here, but doesn't a Podman installation exist in the VM already, that exposes an API that the Podman binary in the host connects to? In this scenario, I would assume that podman-py could connect to that API as well.

In any case, for the needs of a Python project we're working on (Dangerzone) we need to issue podman machine commands across multiple platforms (Windows / macOS). Currently, we don't have a better way to do that than create a Pythonic interface over the podman binary, and issue podman machine commands under the hood. I guess if that interface is generic enough, we could contribute it to podman-py (or a podman[machine/utils] feature), if there's interest from other podman-py users for it.

[inknos]

I may be missing something here, but doesn't a Podman installation exist in the VM already, that exposes an API that the Podman binary in the host connects to? In this scenario, I would assume that podman-py could connect to that API as well.

yes podman is installed within podman machine vm.

In any case, for the needs of a Python project we're working on (Dangerzone) we need to issue podman machine commands across multiple platforms (Windows / macOS).

Please don't hesitate to summon me with a tag in dangerzone issues and I will take a look if I can help :)

[apyrgio]

Thanks! Will do, once I have the interface figured out and something to show. Hopefully soon 🙂