How to debug libpod

[BlackHole1]

I can print detailed logs of the podman client by using podman --debug, but I cannot see the logs of the podman server (libpod). I want to know if there is any way to view the logs in libpod.

[vrothberg]

Thanks for reaching out, @BlackHole1.

By default, the server is running via the socket-activated podman.service systemd service and runs with --log-level=info. If you want to see debug logs you could do a sudo systemctl edit podman.service and edit specific line setting the log level. Alternatively, you can spin up a server on your own via podman --log-level=debug system service -t0.

[BlackHole1]

Thank you for your reply! @vrothberg
When I run podman --log-level=debug system service -t0, I can confirm that this is exactly what I need!

[BlackHole1]

Hey @vrothberg 👋. Sorry to bother you again 🙇‍♂️. I am currently making modifications to the code related to libpod, but the changes are not taking effect. This is because podman running in Fedora CoreOS is built-in and not locally built by me. I would like to understand how the podman team develops/debugs libpod locally.

[BlackHole1]

My initial idea was to build a local Linux platform that is not a remote podman. Then, I would disable the podman service in Fedora CoreOS and replace it with the locally built podman. However, I encountered difficulties when trying to execute make podman.

[vrothberg]

The screenshot indicates that you're building on a Mac. There, you need to make podman-remote.

[BlackHole1]

Is Mac currently only supporting podman-remote? If I want to build podman, can I only do it on Ubuntu?

[BlackHole1]

It seems that Podman can only be built on Linux. I have successfully built it on Ubuntu.

[vrothberg]

Yes, you need all the libraries to build it. It's not a static binary.

[rhatdan]

The full podman executable can only be built on Linux and FreeBSD. Podman-remote is what we build for non UNIX platforms.

[BlackHole1]

Thank you for your reply!