5.7. Inspecting containers from the host

Prerequisites

• The container-tools meta-package is installed.

Procedure

• Inspect the container defined by ID 64ad95327c74:

  • To get all metadata:

    $ podman inspect 64ad95327c74
    [
        {
            "Id": "64ad95327c740ad9de468d551c50b6d906344027a0e645927256cd061049f681",
            "Created": "2025-05-05T18:15:56.743553292+02:00",
              "Path": "/usr/bin/bash",
              "Args": [
                   "/usr/bin/bash"
              ],
              "State": {
                   "OciVersion": "1.2.0",
                "Status": "running",
                ...

  • To get particular items from the JSON file, for example, the StartedAt timestamp:

    $ podman inspect --format='{{.State.StartedAt}}' 64ad95327c74
    2021-03-02 11:23:54.945071961 +0100 CET

    The information is stored in a hierarchy. To see the container StartedAt timestamp (StartedAt is under State), use the --format option and the container ID or name.

    Examples of other items you might want to inspect include:

• .Path to see the command run with the container
• .Args arguments to the command
• .Config.ExposedPorts TCP or UDP ports exposed from the container
• .State.Pid to see the process id of the container

• .HostConfig.PortBindings port mapping from container to host

  For more information, see the podman-inspect(1) man page on your system.