Interactive mode hangs in a busy-loop when run inside a Podman container #17275
Description
What happened?
When running @google/gemini-cli inside a Podman container with an interactive TTY (-it), the interactive mode freezes immediately after login. Non-interactive commands (e.g., gemini --version) work correctly.
To Reproduce:
- On a Linux host with Podman, run the following command to start a debug session:
podman run -it --name gemini-debug -e TERM="$TERM" -v "$(pwd):/workspace:Z" -w /workspace node:22 bash - Inside the container, install the CLI:
npm i -g @google/gemini-cli@latest - Run the CLI to enter interactive mode:
gemini - Log in. The CLI will freeze.
What did you expect to happen?
Expected Behavior:
The CLI should present an interactive prompt.
Actual Behavior:
The CLI hangs and becomes unresponsive, consuming CPU. It does not respond to Ctrl+C. strace reveals the process is in a tight epoll_pwait loop and is not reading from standard input.
NOTE this explanation was prepared by Gemini-CLI (non-sandboxed)
Client information
Client Information
Run gemini to enter the interactive CLI, then run the /about command.
Environment:
- Host OS: Linux (Zorin OS)
- Container Runtime: Podman
- Image: node:22
Non-sandboxed
This is the output of the non-sandboxed mode since the sandbox accepts no input at all.
> /about
│
│ About Gemini CLI │
│ │
│ CLI Version 0.25.0 │
│ Git Commit eb8834341 │
│ Model auto-gemini-2.5 │
│ Sandbox no sandbox │
│ OS linux │
│ Auth Method OAuth │
│ User Email that's [email protected] Login information
No response
Anything else we need to know?
No response