Cyril

Quadlets! podman strikes for real this time.

Quadlets are a native Podman feature that allow users to manage containers as systemd services without manually writing complex unit files.
They function by using declarative configuration files (ending in .container, .pod, etc.)
The podman-system-generator automatically converts these high-level declarative files into standard systemd .service files during boot or when systemctl daemon-reload is executed.

Docker (nope)

Because Quadlets integrate directly with the systemd init system, they eliminate the need for Docker’s daemon or wrapper tools like podman-compose.
This allows management of container lifecycles (auto-start on boot, restart on failure, logging) using native Linux service management commands like systemctl,
making Docker a completely optional dependency.

Benefits:

This is a systemd linker, which makes the implementation ultimately feel a lot more native and intuitive.
No need to know/remember docker-compose commands
No need to have docker installed at all!

Drawbacks:

One needs to understand how service files work (which I struggle with)
The guides (and all of the momentum) are all aimed at docker, so

search.brave.com: “how to use quadlet to create systemd service” overall process:

Create the quadlet file
Place the file in: /etc/containers/systemd/
Reload & start the service
- systemctl daemon-reload
- systemctl start whatever.service
- systemctl enable whatever.service
  ^^ Attempts to enable the service are currently resulting in the following error:
  Failed to enable unit: Unit /blah/blah/blah.service is transient or generated

The user way (unprivileged is safest)

Assuming that:

“vernon” is our unprivileged user dedicated to system tasks
service.container files are stored at /srv/serverus/containers

The service.container files MUST contain:

[Install]
# Start by default on boot
WantedBy=default.target

The service.container files get symlinked to:
/srv/serverus/.config/containers/systemd (instead of /etc/containers/…)
User must have privileges granted by a privileged user
loginctl enable-linger vernon
Reload & start the service
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user start {serviceName}.service
Enable podman auto-updates via systemd timer
systemctl --user enable --now podman-auto-update.timer

Configs (Working):

Jellyfin

vi /srv/serverus/containers/jellyfin.container

contents:

[Unit]
Description=Podman - Jellyfin
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Container]
Image=docker.io/jellyfin/jellyfin:latest
AutoUpdate=registry
ContainerName=jellyfin
Environment=PUID=1011 
Environment=PGID=100
Environment=TZ=America/Denver
Volume=/srv/serverus/containers/jellyfin-config:/config:Z
Volume=/srv/serverus/containers/jellyfin-cache:/cache:Z
Volume=/srv/media/video:/data/video:z
Volume=/srv/media/music:/data/music:z
Volume=/srv/media/pictures:/data/pictures:z
Volume=/srv/media/books:/data/books:z
PublishPort=8096:8096/tcp
PublishPort=7359:7359/udp
PublishPort=1900:1900/udp
StopTimeout=60

[Service]
Restart=always
TimeoutStartSec=900
TimeoutStopSec=70
# Inform systemd of additional exit status
SuccessExitStatus=0 143

[Install]
# Start by default on boot
WantedBy=default.target   

Transmission

vi /srv/serverus/containers/transmission.container

contents:

[Unit]
Description=Transmission BitTorrent Client
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Container]
Image=lscr.io/linuxserver/transmission:latest
AutoUpdate=registry
ContainerName=transmission
PublishPort=9091:9091
PublishPort=51419:51419
PublishPort=51419:51419/udp
Volume=/srv/serverus/containers/transmission-config:/config:Z
Volume=/srv/media:/media:z
Volume=/srv/watch:/watch:z
Environment=PUID=1011
Environment=PGID=1011
Environment=TZ=America/Denver
Environment=WHITELIST=127.0.0.1,192.168.9.*
Environment=PEERPORT=51419
Environment=HOST_WHITELIST=serverus

[Service]
Restart=always
TimeoutStartSec=900
TimeoutStopSec=70

[Install]
# Start by default on boot
WantedBy=default.target 

Configs (unconfirmed):

Samba:Server Containers

Config straight from Bazzite! (but looks to be missing some bits)
https://docs.bazzite.gg/Installing_and_Managing_Software/Quadlet/?h=samba#samba-server

[Container]
ContainerName=samba
Environment=ACCOUNT_username=password
Environment=UID_username=1011
#Environment=GROUPS_username=users
# Protected share with write access
Environment="SAMBA_VOLUME_CONFIG_dublife=[DubLife]; path=/srv; valid users = username; guest ok = no; read only = no; browseable = yes"
# Open share with readonly access
Environment="SAMBA_VOLUME_CONFIG_media=[Media Share]; path=/srv/media; guest ok = yes; read only = no; browseable = yes"
Image=ghcr.io/servercontainers/samba:smbd-only-latest
AutoUpdate=registry
Network=host
Volume=/path/to/protected:/shares/dublife:z
Volume=/path/to/guest:/shares/media:z

# Remove if you don't want autostart
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

https://hub.docker.com/r/servercontainers/samba #for info only, use below to actually pull image
docker pull ghcr.io/servercontainers/samba:latest

  samba:
    image: docker.io/servercontainers/samba:latest
    container_name: samba
    restart: unless-stopped
    # user: samba
    # network_mode: host
    # hostname: smb-server
    environment:
      ACCOUNT_samba: test
      UID_samba: 1000
      SAMBA_GLOBAL_STANZA: vfs objects = catia fruit streams_xattr
      SAMBA_VOLUME_CONFIG_shared_home: |
        [home];
        path=/shares/home
        valid users = samba
        browsable = yes
        writeable = yes 

Samba:dockurr

dockurr is recently updated & well regarded
https://hub.docker.com/r/dockurr/samba
search.brave.com:dockur samba example
Quadlet:
docker pull dockurr/samba:latest

# ~/.config/containers/systemd/samba.container
#https://hub.docker.com/r/dockurr/samba

[Unit]
Description=Samba SMB Server

[Container]
ContainerName=samba
Image=docker.io/dockurr/samba
PublishPort=445:445
Volume=/path/to/local/data:/storage
Environment=USER=samba
Environment=PASS=secret
Environment=NAME=Media
Network=host
# Note: If using default bridge network, ensure port mapping is correct
# and no conflicting services are on port 445.

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target   

docker-compose:

services:
  samba:
    image: dockurr/samba
    container_name: samba
    environment:
      NAME: "Data"
      USER: "samba"
      PASS: "secret"
      RW: true
      UID: 1000
      GID: 1000
    ports:
      - 445:445
    volumes:
      - ./samba:/storage
    restart: always   