Built podman does not seem to respect ETCDIR.

[pbeckm]

Is this a BUG REPORT or FEATURE REQUEST? (leave only one on its own line)

/kind bug

Description

Failing to build podman so that it respects ETCDIR=$INSTALL_PREFIX/etc

Steps to reproduce the issue:

1. make BUILDTAGS="selinux seccomp systemd" && \ make install PREFIX=/opt/podman-4.0.2 ETCDIR=/opt/podman-4.0.2/etc
2. find /opt/podman-4.0.2/etc /opt/podman-4.0.2/etc /opt/podman-4.0.2/etc/containers /opt/podman-4.0.2/etc/containers/registries.conf /opt/podman-4.0.2/etc/containers/policy.json /opt/podman-4.0.2/etc/containers/containers.conf

Describe the results you received:

/opt/podman-4.0.2/bin/podman system migrate 
Error: could not find a working conmon binary (configured options: [/usr/libexec/podman/conmon /usr/local/libexec/podman/conmon /usr/local/lib/podman/conmon /usr/bin/conmon /usr/sbin/conmon /usr/local/bin/conmon /usr/local/sbin/conmon /run/current-system/sw/bin/conmon]): invalid argument

But

pbeckm@sv2218:/opt/podman-4.0.2> cp -ar  etc/containers /etc/               
cp: cannot create directory '/etc/containers': Permission denied
pbeckm@sv2218:/opt/podman-4.0.2> sudo cp -ar  etc/containers /etc/
[sudo] password for beckmann: 
pbeckm@sv2218:/opt/podman-4.0.2> /opt/podman-4.0.2/bin/podman system migrate 
pbeckm@sv2218:/opt/podman-4.0.2> 

Describe the results you expected:

I'd like to know a way to have separate etc-directories for each installed podman-version.

Additional information you deem important (e.g. issue happens only occasionally):

Output of podman version:

podman version 4.0.2

Output of podman info --debug:

opt/podman-4.0.2/bin/podman info --debug 
host:
  arch: amd64
  buildahVersion: 1.24.1
  cgroupControllers:
  - memory
  - pids
  cgroupManager: systemd
  cgroupVersion: v2
  conmon:
    package: Unknown
    path: /opt/podman-4.0.2/libexec/podman/conmon
    version: 'conmon version 2.1.0, commit: 781e16c8653af07a34ea7e423971d1d153728004'
  cpus: 52
  distribution:
    codename: bullseye
    distribution: debian
    version: "11"
  eventLogger: journald
  hostname: sv2218
  idMappings:
    gidmap:
    - container_id: 0
      host_id: 1000
      size: 1
    - container_id: 1
      host_id: 100000
      size: 65536
    uidmap:
    - container_id: 0
      host_id: 1000
      size: 1
    - container_id: 1
      host_id: 100000
      size: 65536
  kernel: 5.10.0-13-amd64
  linkmode: dynamic
  logDriver: journald
  memFree: 258320269312
  memTotal: 270468505600
  networkBackend: cni
  ociRuntime:
    name: runc
    package: Unknown
    path: /opt/podman-3.4.4/sbin/runc
    version: |-
      runc version 1.1.0+dev
      commit: v1.1.0-42-gede71278
      spec: 1.0.2-dev
      go: devel go1.18-867a3d5502 Mon Feb 7 12:32:51 2022 +0000
      libseccomp: 2.5.1
  os: linux
  remoteSocket:
    path: /run/user/1000/podman/podman.sock
  security:
    apparmorEnabled: false
    capabilities: CAP_CHOWN,CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE,CAP_FOWNER,CAP_FSETID,CAP_KILL,CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE,CAP_SETFCAP,CAP_SETGID,CAP_SETPCAP,CAP_SETUID,CAP_SYS_CHROOT
    rootless: true
    seccompEnabled: true
    seccompProfilePath: ""
    selinuxEnabled: false
  serviceIsRemote: false
  slirp4netns:
    executable: ""
    package: ""
    version: ""
  swapFree: 10011799552
  swapTotal: 10011799552
  uptime: 4h 31m 12.22s (Approximately 0.17 days)
plugins:
  log:
  - k8s-file
  - none
  - passthrough
  - journald
  network:
  - bridge
  - macvlan
  - ipvlan
  volume:
  - local
registries:
  search:
  - registry.fedoraproject.org
  - registry.access.redhat.com
  - docker.io
  - quay.io
store:
  configFile: /home/beckmann/.config/containers/storage.conf
  containerStore:
    number: 0
    paused: 0
    running: 0
    stopped: 0
  graphDriverName: vfs
  graphOptions: {}
  graphRoot: /home/beckmann/.local/share/containers/storage
  graphStatus: {}
  imageCopyTmpDir: /var/tmp
  imageStore:
    number: 9
  runRoot: /run/user/1000/containers
  volumePath: /home/beckmann/.local/share/containers/storage/volumes
version:
  APIVersion: 4.0.2
  Built: 1648815392
  BuiltTime: Fri Apr  1 14:16:32 2022
  GitCommit: ""
  GoVersion: devel go1.18-867a3d5502 Mon Feb 7 12:32:51 2022 +0000
  OsArch: linux/amd64
  Version: 4.0.2

Have you tested with the latest version of Podman and have you checked the Podman Troubleshooting Guide? (https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/troubleshooting.md)

Yes

Additional environment details (AWS, VirtualBox, physical, etc.):

cat /etc/os-release 
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="11"
VERSION="11 (bullseye)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bullseye
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

[vrothberg]

Thanks for reaching out, @pbeckm!

I'd like to know a way to have separate etc-directories for each installed podman-version.

Such a functionality does not exist in Podman. May I ask about your motivation to have a separate /etc?

[pbeckm]

Thanks for the swift reply. We'd like to employ podman in a HPC cluster setting. Since it might be necessary to experiment with different versions of podman (and if need be, runc and conmon), having separate config dirs could be handy. The other reason is that /opt, i.e. the installation directory for podman et al, is exported via NFS to all worker nodes, but not /etc. So my question was mainly just a matter of convenience and curiosity. Thanks again. I'll work around it.

[rhatdan]

This would be a very invasive change and might reach down into lower level libraries. For such a change to happen, I think it would have to come from community and work through the entire stack.

[vrothberg]

We'd probably need a package in c/storage with a global variable GlobalRoot (or something similar) which is an empty string by default. It can then be set at build-time. Other go packages in the stack can use it as a prefix in locations dealing with config files etc.

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