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Infra container

As explained in Podman in Action: Secure, rootless containers for Kubernetes, microservices, and more

An infra container is a pod container that keeps the pod's namespaces and cgroups open while other containers start and stop.

An infra container, also called a pause container, keeps a pod’s Linux namespaces and cgroups open while other containers start and stop. Each pod has its own infra container. section 4.1

When Podman adds a container to a pod, it joins the namespaces and cgroups held by the infra container. Conmon monitors the infra container and every other pod container. section 4.1 section 4.3

Add a container to an existing pod

podman create --pod mypod --name myapp quay.io/rhatdan/myimage

How Podman in Action: Secure, rootless containers for Kubernetes, microservices, and more covers it

How deep it goes
Explains its kernel-level responsibility and container-joining behavior, but does not detail its own runtime implementation.
Examples
Uses pod creation diagrams and a podman create command that attaches myapp to mypod.
What it assumes
Assumes basic Podman container usage and introduces the pod-level role of namespaces and cgroups.
What you can do after
Operate Podman pods by understanding how newly created containers join the infra container’s namespaces and cgroups.
How it connects
Connects pods with Linux namespaces, cgroups, conmon, init containers, and sidecar containers.

Related concepts

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Podman in Action: Secure, rootless containers for Kubernetes, microservices, and more. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.