Running a container binary as a native host command via bin export

[bethropolis]

This is a demo of exporting a binary from a Podbox container so it runs on the host like a native command, using cowsay as the example.

Create ~/.config/podbox/fedora-cowsay.toml:

[image]
base = "fedora:44"
name = "fedora-cowsay"

[image.packages]
install = ["cowsay", "fastfetch"]

[container]
name = "fedora-cowsay"
home = "~/containers/fedora-cowsay"
shell = "bash"

[integration.export]
bins = ["cowsay"]

[lifecycle]
quadlet = true

Build it:

podbox build fedora-cowsay --rebuild

This can take a while depending on the base image and package list.

Enable the quadlet and start the container:

$ podbox enable fedora-cowsay 2>&1 && podbox start fedora-cowsay 2>&1

Quadlet files installed via podman quadlet install --application fedora-cowsay.
Systemd units installed to /home/bet/.config/systemd/user
Created symlink '/home/bet/.config/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/fedora-cowsay.socket' → '/home/bet/.config/systemd/user/fedora-cowsay.socket'.
Exported bin shim 'cowsay' -> /home/bet/.local/bin/cowsay

Run `podbox shell` to start and enter the container.
Starting container...
Container 'fedora-cowsay' is running!

The bin shim is exported when the quadlet files are installed, based on the bins list under [integration.export]. It lands in ~/.local/bin, so as long as that's on PATH, cowsay behaves like any other host command:

$ cowsay "hello from the container!" 2>&1
___________________________
< hello from the container! >
 ---------------------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||