> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://linuxhandbook.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Creating and Destroying Containers Using Podman - URL: https://linuxhandbook.com/courses/podman/podman-add-delete-containers/ - Published: 2022-08-02T07:48:00.000Z - Updated: 2025-08-22T07:41:34.000Z - Description: New to Podman? Here's a basic tutorial on creating, listing, stopping and destroying containers with Podman. - Author: Pratham Patel - Tags: Podman, #lessons-col, #lesson-duration-30m In this part of the Podman series, let's see about creating and deleting containers. In case you didn't know already, Podman is a [Docker alternative for managing containers](https://linuxhandbook.com/docker-alternatives/). It follows a similar command structure as Docker. ## Pulling images beforehand Each container needs an image to exist. Without an image, nothing gets executed. Hence, an image needs to be "pulled" from an image registry. Some of the popular image registries are: - [Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/?ref=linuxhandbook.com) - [Quay.io](https://quay.io/?ref=linuxhandbook.com) - Self-hosted image registries like [linuxserver.io](https://www.linuxserver.io/?ref=linuxhandbook.com) The syntax for pulling an image using Podman is as follows: ```bash podman pull [OPTIONS] FULLY_QUALIFIED_IMAGE_NAME[:tag|@digest] ``` If you are wondering what `FULLY_QUALIFIED_IMAGE_NAME` means, look at the two commands below: ```bash # with FQIN podman pull docker.io/library/debian # without FQIN podman pull debian ``` As you might have noticed, in a fully qualified image name, the format is as such: `registry/username/image-name`. The registry address for `hub.docker.com` is `docker.io`. To pull a specific tag, apply the tag after the image name, followed by a colon (`:`). Following is the command to pull the `stable-slim` tag of the Debian image: ```bash podman pull docker.io/library/debian:stable-slim ``` ### List available images Once one or more images are pulled, you can **check which images are available locally** with the `podman images` command. Since I pulled the `debian:stable-slim` image, my output looks like the following: ```bash $ podman images REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE docker.io/library/debian stable-slim 86f9b934c377 2 days ago 77.8 MB ``` Now that you have your image, you can create a new container. ## Creating a container To create a container with Podman, use the `podman run` command in this fashion: ```bash podman run [OPTIONS] image [COMMAND [ARGS]] ``` I will use the `-d` option to keep the container running in the background. I will also use the `-t` option to allocate a pseudo-TTY to the Debian image, so it *keeps running*. You can find a complete list of available options [here](https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-run.1.html?ref=linuxhandbook.com). For now, I will create a simple container based on the Debian `stable-slim` image that you pulled earlier. ```bash podman run -d -t debian:stable-slim ``` If the container creation were successful, you would receive a random string of alphanumeric characters as the command output. *This is the unique container ID*. ``` 61d1b10b5818f397c6fd8f1fc542a83810d21f81825bbfb9603b7d99f6322845 ``` ## List containers To see all the containers that are running, use the `podman ps` command. This is similar to the [ps command in Linux](https://linuxhandbook.com/ps-command/). Instead of showing system processes, it shows the running containers and their details. Since I used the `-t` option as a hack to keep the Debian container running, let us see what the output of the `podman ps` command looks like. ```bash $ podman ps CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 61d1b10b5818 docker.io/library/debian:stable-slim bash 44 seconds ago Up 44 seconds ago gallant_mahavira ``` From here, you can get various details about our container name. Some of the details are the shorter length but unique container ID, the image used to create this container, when it was created, what ports of the host machine are mapped to which ports of the container and the container name. Here, you can see that the image used was `debian:stable-slim`, it was created 44 seconds ago and the container name is `gallant_mahavira`. When a container name is not specified, a name is generated at random. You can pass the container name when creating a container using the `--name CONTAINER_NAME` option. A container can either be running or it can *not* be running (stopped). The stopped containers can be listed like this: ``` podman container list -a ``` I don't have any stopped containers yet so let's learn to stop them first. ## Stopping containers To stop a container, use the `podman stop` command with either the container ID or the container name. Below is the syntax of the `podman stop` command: ```bash podman stop [CONTAINER_NAME|CONTAINER_ID] ``` Let me stop the running container using its name: ``` $ podman stop gallant_mahavira gallant_mahavira ``` Now you can use the aforementioned command to list all the containers, including the stopped ones: ``` $ podman container list -a CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 61d1b10b5818 docker.io/library/debian:stable-slim bash 14 minutes ago Exited (137) 3 minutes ago gallant_mahavira ``` 💡 The commands `podman ps`, `podman container ps`, `podman container list` and `podman container ls` all link to the same binary and these commands can be used **interchangeably*. i.e., you can run the `podman ps -a` command instead of the `podman container list -a` command and get the **same output*. ## Starting a container that was stopped To start a container that was either stopped or failed, use the `podman start` command. Assuming, the container you created from the Debian image failed, for whatever reason, you can start it again using its container name or ID, like so: ```bash $ podman start 61d1b10b5818f397c6fd8f1fc542a83810d21f81825bbfb9603b7d99f6322845 ``` ## Destroying a container To completely delete or destroy a container, you use the `podman rm` command. 🚧 Please ensure to stop the container before deleting it. Once a container is deleted, it will no longer exist. So, when you check the output of the `podman container list -a` command, the container will not exist in the list. Here's an example of stopping and deleting a container with Podman. I used both the container name and ID in the example. ```bash $ podman ps CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 61d1b10b5818 docker.io/library/debian:stable-slim bash 44 minutes ago Up 1 second ago gallant_mahavira $ podman stop gallant_mahavira gallant_mahavira $ podman rm 61d1b10b5818 61d1b10b5818f397c6fd8f1fc542a83810d21f81825bbfb9603b7d99f6322845 $ podman container list -a CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES ``` As you can see now, the container is completely gone. If you want, you can create a new container using any image you want. ## Conclusion The tutorial covers the basics of container management with Podman. You learned about creating containers, listing them, stopping them and deleting them. If you have any doubts, please do not hesitate to comment!