podman-compose does not support windows devices in volumes mapping, incompatible with docker

[jsparkes]

I am running on Windows 10, using podman-compose 1.0.3. I also tested with 1.0.4 from the repository.

I have a docker-compose.yaml with the following volume mapping:

    volumes:
      - C:/users/jsparkes/sql_data:/sql_data

When I run podman-compose up I get an error message:

podman-compose version: 1.0.4
['podman', '--version', '']
using podman version: 4.3.1
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\jsparkes\sql_data\podman_compose.py", line 2862, in <module>
    main()
  File "C:\Users\jsparkes\sql_data\podman_compose.py", line 2858, in main
    podman_compose.run()
  File "C:\Users\jsparkes\sql_data\podman_compose.py", line 1383, in run
    self._parse_compose_file()
  File "C:\Users\jsparkes\sql_data\podman_compose.py", line 1580, in _parse_compose_file
    mnt_dict = get_mnt_dict(self, cnt, volume)
  File "C:\Users\jsparkes\sql_data\podman_compose.py", line 481, in get_mnt_dict
    volume = parse_short_mount(volume, basedir)
  File "C:\Users\jsparkes\sql_data\podman_compose.py", line 156, in parse_short_mount
    raise ValueError("unknown mount option " + opt)
ValueError: unknown mount option /sql_data

Obviously podman-compose is interpreting the "C:" as the first part of the volume mapping. This is strictly a compatability issue with Docker Compose. Docker apparently maps the "C:" into "/mnt/C" before passing it on to docker command. If I manually do that in the file, podman-compose works as expected.

It would be nice to be exactly compatible with docker here so that I can use the same yaml file.

podman-compose should transform a volumes mapping starting with "^[a-zA-Z]:" into "/mnt/$char/" before processing it to be compatible with docker compose.

[benyaminl]

That's never the intention of podman, as podman doesn't have native windows binary, only binary run on WSL. I think if you want that to work, just change it into /mnt/c, approach using unix ways....

As you know, docker has windows client, that's why they can remap it... as podman-compose pure linux python script... welp... I think it's a baggage to add this implementation...

[ShayBox]

I don't know about at the time of your comment, but Podman and Podman Desktop both run natively on Windows using a WSL backend (the same as Docker and Docker Desktop on Windows)

This should probably be fixed to be consistent with docker-compose on Windows :+1:

[flibustier7seas]

Any updates?

[muayyad-alsadi]

colon : is the delimiter between host path or volume and container and mount options how I can know

myvol:/cntpath:ro
a:b:c

how can I know that a: is a drive or a directory followed by colon delimiter?

[flibustier7seas]

how can I know that a: is a drive or a directory followed by colon delimiter?

Maybe the same way docker does it. As far as I understand, docker uses different rules for Windows and Linux when parsing paths

• https://forums.docker.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-mount-a-volume-on-docker-for-windows/58494/2

# Host: Windows, Container: Linux

# mount new volume "foo"
docker run --rm -it -v "foo:/bar" ubuntu bash

# mount existing directory "\\wsl$\...\home\user\foo"
docker run --rm -it -v "./foo:/bar" ubuntu bash

# mount existing directory "C:\foo"
docker run --rm -it -v "C:\foo:/bar" ubuntu bash

# mount existing directory "C:\foo" in readonly mode
docker run --rm -it -v "C:\foo:/bar:ro" ubuntu bash
docker run --rm -it -v "C:/foo:/bar:ro" ubuntu bash

[benyaminl]

@flibustier7seas I think with podman windows and new MR, this can be retested?

https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/docs/tutorials/podman-for-windows.md#volume-mounting

https://github.com/containers/podman-compose/commit/9a5b43907f95e72d27f2c1b840ec584e38288ad5

https://github.com/containers/podman-compose/issues/704

As the checker for NT/Windows already in place.

[flibustier7seas]

@benyaminl Hi! I have tried with the latest version. It seems it doesn't work.

pip install podman-compose --upgrade

# Requirement already satisfied: podman-compose in c:\python312\lib\site-packages (1.0.6)
# Collecting podman-compose
#   Using cached podman_compose-1.2.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (5.6 kB)
# Requirement already satisfied: pyyaml in c:\python312\lib\site-packages (from podman-compose) (6.0.1)
# Requirement already satisfied: python-dotenv in c:\python312\lib\site-packages (from podman-compose) (1.0.1)
# Using cached podman_compose-1.2.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (39 kB)
# Installing collected packages: podman-compose
#   Attempting uninstall: podman-compose
#     Found existing installation: podman-compose 1.0.6
#     Uninstalling podman-compose-1.0.6:
#       Successfully uninstalled podman-compose-1.0.6
# Successfully installed podman-compose-1.2.0

podman-compose --version

# podman-compose version 1.2.0
# podman.exe version 4.9.3

cat C:\Personal\repos\notes\Docker\podman-compose__example\nginx__compose.yml

# version: "3"
# services:
#   smartcat:
#     image: nginx:latest
#     container_name: my-nginx
#     volumes:
#       - C:\Personal\repos\notes\Docker\podman-compose__example:/workdir

podman-compose --file C:\Personal\repos\notes\Docker\podman-compose__example\nginx__compose.yml up --detach

# Traceback (most recent call last):
#   File "<frozen runpy>", line 198, in _run_module_as_main
#   File "<frozen runpy>", line 88, in _run_code
#   File "C:\Python312\Scripts\podman-compose.exe\__main__.py", line 7, in <module>
#   File "C:\Python312\Lib\site-packages\podman_compose.py", line 3504, in main
#     asyncio.run(async_main())
#   File "C:\Python312\Lib\asyncio\runners.py", line 194, in run
#     return runner.run(main)
#            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#   File "C:\Python312\Lib\asyncio\runners.py", line 118, in run
#     return self._loop.run_until_complete(task)
#            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#   File "C:\Python312\Lib\asyncio\base_events.py", line 685, in run_until_complete
#     return future.result()
#            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#   File "C:\Python312\Lib\site-packages\podman_compose.py", line 3500, in async_main
#     await podman_compose.run()
#   File "C:\Python312\Lib\site-packages\podman_compose.py", line 1741, in run
#     self._parse_compose_file()
#   File "C:\Python312\Lib\site-packages\podman_compose.py", line 1980, in _parse_compose_file
#     mnt_dict = get_mnt_dict(self, cnt, volume)
#                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#   File "C:\Python312\Lib\site-packages\podman_compose.py", line 521, in get_mnt_dict
#     volume = parse_short_mount(volume, basedir)
#              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#   File "C:\Python312\Lib\site-packages\podman_compose.py", line 181, in parse_short_mount
#     raise ValueError("unknown mount option " + opt)
# ValueError: unknown mount option /workdir

[flibustier7seas]

I think if you want that to work, just change it into /mnt/c, approach using unix ways....

It seems that /mnt/c/... and /c/... patterns don't work as well; new directories are being created instead of using the expected directories.

version: "3"
services:
  smartcat:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: my-nginx
    volumes:
      - /mnt/c/Personal/repos/notes/Docker/podman-compose__example:/workdir

version: "3"
services:
  smartcat:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: my-nginx
    volumes:
      - /c/Personal/repos/notes/Docker/podman-compose__example:/workdir

Expected results

The C:\Personal\repos\notes\Docker\podman-compose__example directory will be used.

Actual results

• /mnt/c/Personal/repos/notes/Docker/podman-compose__example:/workdir

  • a new directory will be created: C:\mnt\c\Personal\repos\notes\Docker\podman-compose__example

• /c/Personal/repos/notes/Docker/podman-compose__example:/workdir

  • a new directory will be created C:\c\Personal\repos\notes\Docker\podman-compose__example