Podman cannot create container when an overlay volume has additional arguments

[haakobja]

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

/kind bug

Description

I'm trying to create a container where I mount a volume as an overlay of $HOME/.local, but the overlay volume is not persistent. According to the documentation, I should be able to add some additional configuration parameters to get the volume mount to be persistent. Unfortunately, that doesn't work as expected.

Steps to reproduce the issue:

1. Create a pod with the following argument--volume="/dir:/dir:O,upperdir=/mnt/upper,workdir=/mnt/work". Make sure the directories exists

Describe the results you received:
Error message: Error: can't use 'O' with other options

Describe the results you expected:
The container should have been created as it is described in the podman documentation

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

Output of podman version:

Client:       Podman Engine
Version:      4.1.0
API Version:  4.1.0
Go Version:   go1.18
Built:        Fri May  6 18:15:54 2022
OS/Arch:      linux/amd64

Output of podman info --debug:

host:
  arch: amd64
  buildahVersion: 1.26.1
  cgroupControllers:
  - cpu
  - io
  - memory
  - pids
  cgroupManager: systemd
  cgroupVersion: v2
  conmon:
    package: conmon-2.1.0-2.fc36.x86_64
    path: /usr/bin/conmon
    version: 'conmon version 2.1.0, commit: '
  cpuUtilization:
    idlePercent: 80.84
    systemPercent: 3.86
    userPercent: 15.3
  cpus: 12
  distribution:
    distribution: fedora
    variant: workstation
    version: "36"
  eventLogger: journald
  hostname: TON-HOJA01-VPC
  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: 5.17.11-300.fc36.x86_64
  linkmode: dynamic
  logDriver: journald
  memFree: 16428404736
  memTotal: 33435189248
  networkBackend: cni
  ociRuntime:
    name: crun
    package: crun-1.4.5-1.fc36.x86_64
    path: /usr/bin/crun
    version: |-
      crun version 1.4.5
      commit: c381048530aa750495cf502ddb7181f2ded5b400
      spec: 1.0.0
      +SYSTEMD +SELINUX +APPARMOR +CAP +SECCOMP +EBPF +CRIU +YAJL
  os: linux
  remoteSocket:
    exists: true
    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: /usr/share/containers/seccomp.json
    selinuxEnabled: true
  serviceIsRemote: false
  slirp4netns:
    executable: /usr/bin/slirp4netns
    package: slirp4netns-1.2.0-0.2.beta.0.fc36.x86_64
    version: |-
      slirp4netns version 1.2.0-beta.0
      commit: 477db14a24ff1a3de3a705e51ca2c4c1fe3dda64
      libslirp: 4.6.1
      SLIRP_CONFIG_VERSION_MAX: 3
      libseccomp: 2.5.3
  swapFree: 8589930496
  swapTotal: 8589930496
  uptime: 18h 56m 11.54s (Approximately 0.75 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/hakon.botnmark.jahre/.config/containers/storage.conf
  containerStore:
    number: 1
    paused: 0
    running: 1
    stopped: 0
  graphDriverName: overlay
  graphOptions: {}
  graphRoot: /home/hakon.botnmark.jahre/.local/share/containers/storage
  graphRootAllocated: 145726898176
  graphRootUsed: 37949427712
  graphStatus:
    Backing Filesystem: btrfs
    Native Overlay Diff: "true"
    Supports d_type: "true"
    Using metacopy: "false"
  imageCopyTmpDir: /var/tmp
  imageStore:
    number: 18
  runRoot: /run/user/1000/containers
  volumePath: /home/hakon.botnmark.jahre/.local/share/containers/storage/volumes
version:
  APIVersion: 4.1.0
  Built: 1651853754
  BuiltTime: Fri May  6 18:15:54 2022
  GitCommit: ""
  GoVersion: go1.18
  Os: linux
  OsArch: linux/amd64
  Version: 4.1.0

Package info (e.g. output of rpm -q podman or apt list podman):

podman-4.1.0-1.fc36.x86_64

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.):

physical

[Luap99]

@flouthoc PTAL

[haakobja]

I forgot to mention that the documentation for the --volume switch differs for podman-create and podman-run.

The mention of the advanced usage of overlay mounts is only in the podman-run documentation

For advanced users overlay option also supports custom non-volatile upperdir and workdir for the overlay mount. Custom upperdir and workdir can be fully managed by the users themselves and podman will not remove it on lifecycle completion. Example :O,upperdir=/some/upper,workdir=/some/work

I assume the calls have a common code path for handling volumes

[flouthoc]

Hi @haakobja , It seems this feature was only enabled for named volumes and you are attempting this feature on anonymous volume so you need to create a volume first or this PR should enable same feature for anonymous overlay volumes as well: #14474

$ podman volume create test
$ podman run -it -v test:/data:O,upperdir=/path/persistant/upper,workdir=/path/persistant/work alpine sh

So you can either wait for : #14474 or create a named overlay volume as stated above.

[haakobja]

Hi @haakobja , It seems this feature was only enabled for named volumes and you are attempting this feature on anonymous volume so you need to create a volume first or this PR should enable same feature for anonymous overlay volumes as well: #14474

$ podman volume create test
$ podman run -it -v test:/data:O,upperdir=/path/persistant/upper,workdir=/path/persistant/work alpine sh

So you can either wait for : #14474 or create a named overlay volume as stated above.

I think I'll wait for the PR (didn't really think it would be implemented that quick). What I'm trying to do is to mount my home directory in a container, but I want the files to be persisted in a named volume, as I try to get my development environment to be contained within a container context. I have partially solved it by mounting a named volume as ~/.local, but it's not ideal