feat: warn in generated scripts when podman is below the known /etc/hosts pod-wipe fix version

Podman before 6.0.0 wipes /etc/hosts for every container in a pod when any
one container stops, breaking name resolution for containers started after
a completion-gated dependency (e.g. a migration step) exits. compose2pod's
pod-level --add-host design makes every generated script vulnerable to this
on affected podman versions. The script now checks `podman version` at
startup and warns on stderr, without blocking, when it detects a major
version below 6.

Author: lesnik512

README.md

@@ -26,6 +26,16 @@ Built for CI and test environments where you can't use `docker compose` or `podm
 - **No systemd.** Podman healthchecks are normally scheduled by systemd timers. compose2pod gates startup by polling `podman healthcheck run` directly, so `depends_on: service_healthy` works without systemd.
 - **No heavy runtime.** The core is stdlib-only — no dependencies, no compiled wheels — so it installs and runs in minimal Python images.
 
+## Requirements
+
+**Podman >= 6.0.0.** Earlier releases have a bug where a container stopping
+inside a multi-container pod wipes `/etc/hosts` for every container in that
+pod, not just the one that stopped — fixed in 6.0.0. compose2pod's generated
+scripts rely on one shared `--add-host`-populated `/etc/hosts` for the whole
+pod (see `architecture/supported-subset.md`), so a `service_completed_successfully`
+dependency (a container that runs and exits, e.g. a migration step) can wipe
+name resolution for everything started after it on a pre-6.0.0 Podman.
+
 ## Install
 
 ```bash

architecture/supported-subset.md

@@ -227,6 +227,20 @@ compose2pod hoists them onto `podman pod create` instead
   time a `dns` / `sysctls` / `extra_hosts` declaration on a service outside
   the target's closure is silently ignored by `pod_create_flags` — no flag
   is emitted for it, since that service is never run.
+- **Requires Podman >= 6.0.0.** Before 6.0.0, Podman had a bug where a
+  container stopping inside a multi-container pod wiped `/etc/hosts` for
+  every container in the pod, not just the one that stopped. Because
+  `--add-host` here is the pod's *only* source of `/etc/hosts` entries (moved
+  off per-service `podman run` for exactly this pod-wide reason), a
+  `service_completed_successfully` dependency — a container that runs to
+  completion and exits, e.g. a migration step run via `podman run --rm` —
+  triggers the bug and erases name resolution for every service started
+  after it. Confirmed present on 5.8.1, fixed on 6.0.0/6.0.1 (verified by
+  reproducing the exact failure end-to-end against real Podman). See
+  `README.md`'s Requirements section. The generated script itself checks
+  `podman version` at startup and warns on stderr (without blocking) when
+  it detects a major version below 6, so the requirement is visible at the
+  point of failure, not only in the docs.
 - **Non-goals:** per-service DNS/sysctls — impossible inside a
   shared-namespace pod, not a compose2pod limitation; last-writer-wins on a
   sysctl key conflict — refused instead, matching the refuse-on-conflict

compose2pod/emit.py

@@ -112,6 +112,18 @@ def run_flags(name: str, svc: dict[str, Any], pod: str, project_dir: str) -> lis
 # Generated by compose2pod -- do not edit, regenerate instead.
 set -eu
 
+podman_version=$(podman version --format '{{.Client.Version}}' 2>/dev/null) || podman_version="unknown"
+podman_major=$(echo "$podman_version" | cut -d. -f1)
+case "$podman_major" in
+  ''|*[!0-9]*) ;;  # unparseable -- skip rather than false-positive
+  *) if [ "$podman_major" -lt 6 ]; then
+       echo "warning: podman $podman_version detected; compose2pod requires podman >= 6.0.0" >&2
+       echo "warning: podman < 6.0.0 has a bug where a container stopping in a multi-container" >&2
+       echo "pod wipes /etc/hosts for the whole pod (fixed in 6.0.0) -- name resolution between" >&2
+       echo "services may fail unpredictably" >&2
+     fi ;;
+esac
+
 wait_healthy() {
   ctr=$1
   attempts=$2

planning/changes/2026-07-13.06-podman-version-guard.md

@@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
+---
+summary: Generated scripts now warn on stderr (non-blocking) when run under podman < 6.0.0, naming the required version and the /etc/hosts pod-wipe bug it fixes.
+---
+
+# Design: podman version guard in the generated script
+
+## Summary
+
+Every script `emit_script` produces gets a small unconditional check,
+inlined into `_SCRIPT_HEADER` right after `set -eu`: it reads the podman
+client's major version and, if it is below 6, prints a two-line warning to
+stderr naming the actual version, the required version, and the underlying
+`/etc/hosts` bug — then continues running the script unchanged. It is a
+diagnostic aid, not a gate.
+
+## Motivation
+
+`README.md` and `architecture/supported-subset.md` already document
+"Requires Podman >= 6.0.0" (this session, debugging a real failure): podman
+before 6.0.0 has a bug where a container stopping inside a multi-container
+pod wipes `/etc/hosts` for every container in the pod, not just the one that
+stopped. compose2pod's pod-level `--add-host` design (see
+`2026-07-13.01-pod-level-add-host.md`) makes every generated script's
+`service_completed_successfully` dependency (e.g. a migration step that runs
+via `podman run --rm` and exits) a trigger for it. The failure this produces
+— `could not translate host name "db" to address` deep inside an unrelated
+application, minutes after the script appeared to succeed — gives no hint
+that podman's version is the cause. A stated README requirement does nothing
+for someone who hits the bug at 2am and has never read the README. The
+script itself is where that information is actually useful.
+
+## Design
+
+`compose2pod/emit.py`'s `_SCRIPT_HEADER` constant gains this block,
+immediately after `set -eu` and before the `wait_healthy()` function
+definition, so it is the first thing every generated script does:
+
+```sh
+podman_version=$(podman version --format '{{.Client.Version}}' 2>/dev/null) || podman_version="unknown"
+podman_major=$(echo "$podman_version" | cut -d. -f1)
+case "$podman_major" in
+  ''|*[!0-9]*) ;;  # unparseable -- skip rather than false-positive
+  *) if [ "$podman_major" -lt 6 ]; then
+       echo "warning: podman $podman_version detected; compose2pod requires podman >= 6.0.0" >&2
+       echo "warning: podman < 6.0.0 has a bug where a container stopping in a multi-container pod wipes /etc/hosts for the whole pod (fixed in 6.0.0) -- name resolution between services may fail unpredictably" >&2
+     fi ;;
+esac
+```
+
+Only the major version is compared: 6.0.0 is an exact upstream fix
+boundary, not a range, so there is no minor/patch granularity to reason
+about. The check is unconditional — it runs for every script regardless of
+how many services are in the target's dependency closure — trading a
+theoretically-avoidable warning on a single-service pod (which cannot hit
+the underlying bug) for one code path with nothing to get wrong. It is
+inlined rather than wrapped in a named function like `wait_healthy()`:
+`wait_healthy` has multiple call sites (one per healthcheck-gated
+dependency), this check has exactly one, so a function would add indirection
+with no reuse to justify it.
+
+The check degrades safely on anything unexpected: if `podman version
+--format` fails or is unsupported, `podman_version` becomes the literal
+string `"unknown"`, `cut -d. -f1` yields `"unknown"`, and the `case` pattern
+`*[!0-9]*` matches it — the check is silently skipped rather than raising
+under `set -eu` or false-warning on a version it could not parse.
+
+It is a warning, not a gate: the script proceeds regardless of the podman
+version detected. A user who has confirmed their specific compose shape
+cannot hit the bug (or is mid-upgrade and accepts the risk) is not blocked.
+
+## Non-goals
+
+- **No escape hatch / suppression env var.** It is a non-blocking warning;
+  there is nothing to bypass. Revisit only if this becomes reported as
+  noisy in practice.
+- **No closure-shape detection** (e.g. skipping the check for
+  single-service targets that can't hit the bug). Rejected for the same
+  reason as the escape hatch: one unconditional code path is simpler than a
+  correct-in-all-cases shape analysis, and the cost of an unnecessary
+  warning is low.
+- **No minor/patch-level version comparison.** The fix boundary is a single
+  major-version line (6.0.0); finer comparison buys nothing here.
+
+## Testing
+
+`just test-ci` at 100%:
+- `tests/test_emit.py`: `emit_script(...)` output contains the version-check
+  block for a representative compose shape (asserts the `podman version
+  --format` line and the `requires podman >= 6.0.0` message are present) —
+  one assertion suffices since the block is unconditional and identical
+  across every shape.
+- `tests/test_emit.py`: a subprocess-level test extracts just the version
+  guard block from `_SCRIPT_HEADER` and runs it under `sh` with a stub
+  `podman` script on `PATH` (via a `tmp_path` bin dir prepended to `PATH`)
+  that prints a chosen version string. Cases: `5.8.1` → warning lines on
+  stderr; `6.0.1` → silent, exit 0; garbage/empty output → silent, exit 0
+  (proves the `set -eu` script doesn't abort on an unparseable version).
+
+`just lint-ci` and `just check-planning` clean.
+
+## Risk
+
+- **False negative on a podman fork/vendor build with a non-numeric or
+  differently-shaped `--format` output** (low x low): the `case` guard
+  skips the check silently rather than warning wrong or crashing. Accepted:
+  matches the "degrade safely" principle above.
+- **Warning noise on CI logs for users already on podman >= 6** (none): the
+  check is silent whenever `podman_major -ge 6`, so this only affects users
+  actually on the affected versions.

tests/test_emit.py

@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
+import os
+import shutil
+import subprocess
+from pathlib import Path
+
 import pytest
 
 from compose2pod.emit import (
+    _SCRIPT_HEADER,
     EmitOptions,
     _Expand,
     command_tokens,
@@ -14,6 +20,9 @@
 from compose2pod.parsing import validate
 
 
+_SH = shutil.which("sh")
+
+
 class TestRunFlags:
     def test_db_flags(self, chats_compose: dict) -> None:
         flags = run_flags("db", chats_compose["services"]["db"], "test-pod", "/builds/chats")
@@ -406,6 +415,15 @@ def test_wait_healthy_function_uses_healthcheck_run(self, chats_compose: dict) -
         assert "podman healthcheck run" in script
         assert "wait_healthy()" in script
 
+    def test_podman_version_guard_present_in_header(self, chats_compose: dict) -> None:
+        script = self.make_script(chats_compose)
+        assert "podman version --format '{{.Client.Version}}'" in script
+        assert "requires podman >= 6.0.0" in script
+        version_guard_index = script.index("podman_version=")
+        wait_healthy_index = script.index("wait_healthy()")
+        set_eu_index = script.index("set -eu")
+        assert set_eu_index < version_guard_index < wait_healthy_index
+
     def test_hostname_becomes_add_host_entry(self) -> None:
         compose = {
             "services": {
@@ -733,3 +751,41 @@ def test_emit_script_accepts_a_valid_pod_name(self) -> None:
         doc = {"services": {"app": {"image": "x"}}}
         script = emit_script(compose=doc, options=self._options("test-pod.1"))
         assert "podman pod create --name test-pod.1" in script
+
+
+class TestPodmanVersionGuard:
+    def _run_header(self, tmp_path: Path, podman_stub_body: str) -> "subprocess.CompletedProcess[str]":
+        assert _SH is not None  # sh is a POSIX baseline binary, always present
+        bin_dir = tmp_path / "bin"
+        bin_dir.mkdir()
+        podman_stub = bin_dir / "podman"
+        podman_stub.write_text(f"#!/bin/sh\n{podman_stub_body}\n")
+        podman_stub.chmod(0o755)
+        header_path = tmp_path / "header.sh"
+        header_path.write_text(_SCRIPT_HEADER)
+        env = dict(os.environ)
+        env["PATH"] = f"{bin_dir}:{env['PATH']}"
+        return subprocess.run(  # noqa: S603 - _SH is an absolute path from shutil.which, not untrusted input
+            [_SH, str(header_path)],
+            capture_output=True,
+            text=True,
+            env=env,
+            check=False,
+            timeout=10,
+        )
+
+    def test_warns_when_podman_major_below_six(self, tmp_path: Path) -> None:
+        result = self._run_header(tmp_path, 'echo "5.8.1"')
+        assert result.returncode == 0
+        assert "podman 5.8.1 detected; compose2pod requires podman >= 6.0.0" in result.stderr
+        assert "/etc/hosts" in result.stderr
+
+    def test_silent_when_podman_major_six_or_above(self, tmp_path: Path) -> None:
+        result = self._run_header(tmp_path, 'echo "6.0.1"')
+        assert result.returncode == 0
+        assert result.stderr == ""
+
+    def test_silent_when_podman_version_unparseable(self, tmp_path: Path) -> None:
+        result = self._run_header(tmp_path, "exit 1")
+        assert result.returncode == 0
+        assert result.stderr == ""