5.12. Sharing files between two containers

Procedure

1. Create a volume:

   $ podman volume create hostvolume

2. Display information about the volume:

   $ podman volume inspect hostvolume
   [
       {
           "name": "hostvolume",
           "labels": {},
           "mountpoint": "/home/username/.local/share/containers/storage/volumes/hostvolume/_data",
           "driver": "local",
           "options": {},
           "scope": "local"
       }
   ]

   Notice that it creates a volume in the volumes directory. You can save the mount point path to the variable for easier manipulation: $ mntPoint=$(podman volume inspect hostvolume --format {{.Mountpoint}}).

   Notice that if you run sudo podman volume create hostvolume, then the mount point changes to /var/lib/containers/storage/volumes/hostvolume/_data.

3. Create a text file inside the directory using the path that is stored in the mntPoint variable:

   $ echo "Hello from host" >> $mntPoint/host.txt

4. List all files in the directory defined by the mntPoint variable:

   $ ls $mntPoint/
   host.txt

5. Run the container named myubi1 and map the directory defined by the hostvolume volume name on the host to the /containervolume1 directory on the container:

   $ podman run -it --name myubi1 -v hostvolume:/containervolume1 registry.access.redhat.com/ubi10/ubi /bin/bash

   Note that if you use the volume path defined by the mntPoint variable (-v $mntPoint:/containervolume1), data can be lost when running podman volume prune command, which removes unused volumes. Always use -v hostvolume_name:/containervolume_name.

6. List the files in the shared volume on the container:

   # ls /containervolume1
   host.txt

   You can see the host.txt file which you created on the host.

7. Create a text file inside the /containervolume1 directory:

   # echo "Hello from container 1" >> /containervolume1/container1.txt

8. Detach from the container with CTRL+p and CTRL+q.

9. List the files in the shared volume on the host, you should see two files:

   $ ls $mntPoint
   container1.rxt  host.txt

   At this point, you are sharing files between the container and host. To share files between two containers, run another container named myubi2.

10. Run the container named myubi2 and map the directory defined by the hostvolume volume name on the host to the /containervolume2 directory on the container:

    $ podman run -it --name myubi2 -v hostvolume:/containervolume2 registry.access.redhat.com/ubi10/ubi /bin/bash

11. List the files in the shared volume on the container:

    # ls /containervolume2
    container1.txt host.txt

    You can see the host.txt file which you created on the host and container1.txt which you created inside the myubi1 container.

12. Create a text file inside the /containervolume2 directory:

    # echo "Hello from container 2" >> /containervolume2/container2.txt

13. Detach from the container with CTRL+p and CTRL+q.

14. List the files in the shared volume on the host, you should see three files:

    $ ls $mntPoint
    container1.rxt  container2.txt host.txt

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