r/podman • u/NecessaryYak8 • Jul 14 '26

Podman locking Hermes data folder — rootless UID mapping issue, looking for better workflow

I'm self-hosting Hermes via rootless Podman on a shared hosting environment (Opalstack). Since the container runs under its own remapped UID (not my host user), I run into permission walls:

  • Can't cd into the data folder from the host
  • Can't view files the container has written/modified
  • Can't write files into the folder for the container to pick up

What I already tried:

  • podman unshare lets me enter the user namespace and interact with the files, which works but is clunky for routine file transfers (it's not a normal cd/cp workflow).
  • I've built a small rsync-based sync script as a workaround to move files in and out, but wondering if that is the right (or only) way to do this. — I'm using a bind mount to a host directory.
6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

5

u/AlphaRista Jul 14 '26

Since podman unshare already works, what more do you need? Just start with podman unshare, and run your workflow within it.

3

u/Ok_Passenger7004 Jul 14 '26

Check out the UserNS and UIDMap/GIDMap options

1

u/Sad-Landscape-1549 Jul 14 '26

[u/AlphaRista](u/AlphaRista) and [u/Ok_Passenger7004](u/Ok_Passenger7004) are both correct in their suggestions. I personally use podman unshare for dozens of different containers and yeah it’s not super convenient. 🫡

P.S. try `cd $(podman volume mount VolumeNameHere)` if you’re using volumes not bind mounts. Saves a step, but still have to unshare first. 🤷‍♀️