Manage containers as system services by using systemd integration. With this feature, you can auto-start containers, manage dependencies, and control their state by using standard systemctl commands.

Podman is a daemonless container engine with a Docker-CLI comparable command line. It simplifies the migration from other container engines and supports managing pods, containers, and images.

Initially, Podman was not designed for full Linux system or service management. However, due to Red Hat’s integration of containers with systemd, you can now manage OCI and Docker-formatted containers built by Podman such as, any other Linux service by using the systemd initialization service.

You can use systemd unit files to start containers or pods as systemd services, define their execution order, and dependencies. You can control their state by using the systemctl command.