Add `podman machine restart` subcommand by jaitjacob · Pull Request #28687 · containers/podman

jaitjacob · 2026-05-11T19:31:39Z

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Does this PR introduce a user-facing change?

Yes? No action needed when upgrading?

Fixes #28366

This PR implements podman machine restart subcommand.

Here's how I tested it,

Locally build podman binary using make BUILDTAGS="selinux seccomp" PREFIX=/usr
cd bin/
Run ./podman machine restart --help & verify help text displays correctly.

jaitjacob@fedora:~/Documents/workbench/podman/bin$ ./podman machine restart --help
Restart an existing machine

Description:
  Restart a managed virtual machine

Usage:
  podman machine restart [MACHINE]

Examples:
  podman machine restart podman-machine-default

Run ./podman machine list

jaitjacob@fedora:~/Documents/workbench/podman/bin$ ./podman machine list
NAME                     VM TYPE     CREATED      LAST UP            CPUS        MEMORY      DISK SIZE
podman-machine-default*  qemu        3 hours ago  About an hour ago  2           2GiB        10GiB

Run ./podman machine start

jaitjacob@fedora:~/Documents/workbench/podman/bin$ ./podman machine start
Starting machine "podman-machine-default"

This machine is currently configured in rootless mode. If your containers
require root permissions (e.g. ports < 1024), or if you run into compatibility
issues with non-podman clients, you can switch using the following command:

        podman machine set --rootful

Mounting volume... /home/jaitjacob:/home/jaitjacob
API forwarding listening on: /run/user/1000/podman/podman-machine-default-api.sock
You can connect Docker API clients by setting DOCKER_HOST using the
following command in your terminal session:

        export DOCKER_HOST='unix:///run/user/1000/podman/podman-machine-default-api.sock'

Machine "podman-machine-default" started successfully

SSH into VM and check uptime

jaitjacob@fedora:~/Documents/workbench/podman/bin$ ./podman machine ssh
Connecting to vm podman-machine-default. To close connection, use `~.` or `exit`
Fedora CoreOS 43.20260316.3.1
Tracker: https://github.com/coreos/fedora-coreos-tracker
Discuss: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/tag/coreos

Last login: Mon May 11 22:26:20 2026 from 192.168.127.1
core@localhost:~$ uptime -p
up 0 minutes
core@localhost:~$ uptime -s
2026-05-12 00:36:59

Wait couple mins and run ./podman machine restart

jaitjacob@fedora:~/Documents/workbench/podman/bin$ ./podman machine restart
Waiting for VM to exit...
Machine "podman-machine-default" stopped successfully

This machine is currently configured in rootless mode. If your containers
require root permissions (e.g. ports < 1024), or if you run into compatibility
issues with non-podman clients, you can switch using the following command:

        podman machine set --rootful

Mounting volume... /home/jaitjacob:/home/jaitjacob
API forwarding listening on: /run/user/1000/podman/podman-machine-default-api.sock
You can connect Docker API clients by setting DOCKER_HOST using the
following command in your terminal session:

        export DOCKER_HOST='unix:///run/user/1000/podman/podman-machine-default-api.sock'

Machine "podman-machine-default" started successfully

SSH into VM and Check uptime again

jaitjacob@fedora:~/Documents/workbench/podman/bin$ ./podman machine ssh
Connecting to vm podman-machine-default. To close connection, use `~.` or `exit`
Fedora CoreOS 43.20260316.3.1
Tracker: https://github.com/coreos/fedora-coreos-tracker
Discuss: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/tag/coreos

Last login: Tue May 12 00:37:17 2026 from 192.168.127.1
core@localhost:~$ uptime -p
up 0 minutes
core@localhost:~$ uptime -s
2026-05-12 00:39:14

I also built the docs locally and viewed in browser,

TomSweeneyRedHat · 2026-05-12T00:19:41Z

+**[podman(1)](podman.1.md)**, **[podman-machine(1)](podman-machine.1.md)**
+
+## HISTORY
+March 2021, Originally compiled by Ashley Cui <[email protected]>


this needs to change.

TomSweeneyRedHat · 2026-05-12T00:19:46Z

+The default machine name is `podman-machine-default`. If a machine name is not specified as an argument,
+then `podman-machine-default` will be restarted.
+
+Stopping an already stopped vm is not considered an error so running restart on a stopped vm just


Suggested change

Stopping an already stopped vm is not considered an error so running restart on a stopped vm just

Stopping an already stopped virtual machine is not considered an error so running restart on a stopped virtual machine just

I realize this was probably a cut/paste form elsewhere, but we say "virtual machine" everywhere else in this doc, so we should be consistant.

yes straight from a code comment i read :) fixed

TomSweeneyRedHat · 2026-05-12T00:20:49Z

 | ssh     | [podman-machine-ssh(1)](podman-machine-ssh.1.md)         | SSH into a virtual machine                                      |
 | start   | [podman-machine-start(1)](podman-machine-start.1.md)     | Start a virtual machine                                         |
 | stop    | [podman-machine-stop(1)](podman-machine-stop.1.md)       | Stop a virtual machine                                          |
+| restart | [podman-machine-restart(1)](podman-machine-restart.1.md) | Restart a virtual machine                                       |


This needs to be in alpha order between reset and rm

TomSweeneyRedHat · 2026-05-12T00:23:26Z

@jaitjacob TYVM for the PR! It looks great overall. You should add a test or two if possible, and there are a few tweaks to do to the documenation.

By far the best description I've seen on a PR in a very long time!

Honny1

Thanks! At first glance, the code looks good. However, the PR is missing tests. Please implement e2e tests for machine. Here is an example you can use as a reference: https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/pkg/machine/e2e/start_test.go. You can add a restart_test.go file for this.

baude · 2026-05-12T14:26:14Z

One of the reasons I never wanted this sub-command is because there were cases were if the Podman binary did not exit, then there could be collision or zombied processes of helper functions or the various sockets and pipes being used. Are you certain that this cannot happen?

baude · 2026-05-12T14:28:04Z

in addition to tests, we might need a basic test added to podman-machine-os as well?

danishprakash · 2026-05-12T15:44:15Z

 | stop    | [podman-machine-stop(1)](podman-machine-stop.1.md)       | Stop a virtual machine                                          |
+| restart | [podman-machine-restart(1)](podman-machine-restart.1.md) | Restart a virtual machine                                       |

 ## SEE ALSO


might want to add a reference here as well

added ref to the command under 'See Also'

danishprakash · 2026-05-12T15:49:34Z

+	fmt.Printf("Machine %q stopped successfully\n", vmName)
+	newMachineEvent(events.Stop, events.Event{Name: vmName})
+
+	if err := shim.Start(mc, vmProvider, machine.StartOptions{}, nil); err != nil {


As I understand this, passing nil here would trigger an update system connection prompt, which I'm not sure is ideal during a restart.

passing false for updateSystemConn bool instead.

danishprakash · 2026-05-12T15:52:10Z

+	if err := shim.Start(mc, vmProvider, machine.StartOptions{}, nil); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	fmt.Printf("Machine %q started successfully\n", vmName)


Suggested change

fmt.Printf("Machine %q started successfully\n", vmName)

fmt.Printf("Machine %q restarted successfully\n", vmName)

danishprakash · 2026-05-12T15:52:37Z

+		return err
+	}
+
+	fmt.Printf("Machine %q stopped successfully\n", vmName)


How about dropping this altogether and simply printing a "restarted successfully" msg?

Shall I also extend this to emit a single newMachineEvent(events.Restart) instead of the current newMachineEvent(events.Stop) followed by newMachineEvent(events.Start)?

i dont believe a "restart" event is valid. it's still a stop and a start. i would agree, line 48 is not needed.

I saw a Restart enum defined in events/config.go which I assumed I could use here.

I've removed line 48.

packit-as-a-service · 2026-05-13T20:46:39Z

[NON-BLOCKING] Packit jobs failed. @containers/packit-build please check. Everyone else, feel free to ignore.

Honny1 · 2026-05-14T13:58:56Z

+		return err
+	}
+
+	newMachineEvent(events.Stop, events.Event{Name: vmName})


What happens when podman machine restart emits a stop event, and in parallel, I run podman machine start? I believe this is the issue @baude wanted to point out. Maybe this could be solved with a new function shim.StopThenStart.

Thank you for the review, Jan. I do not have enough understanding to create baude's concern as a test condition. I did ask AI for help but I wasn't convinced.

podman machine restart emiting a stop event implies shim.Stop was run successfully. So the machine is now definitely in Stopped state. Before restart.go can get to shim.Start a different podman binary could send start which would then result podman machine restart to error out saying,
"Starting machine "podman-machine-default" Error: unable to start "podman-machine-default": already running.

With a shim.StopThenStart are we expecting to hold a lock on the machine until we complete the restart?

Honny1 · 2026-05-14T14:04:19Z

+}
+
+func init() {
+	registry.Commands = append(registry.Commands, registry.CliCommand{


I think the restart command cloud has some flags that are related to stopping and starting the machine, for example, --quiet.

TomSweeneyRedHat reviewed May 12, 2026

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Honny1 requested changes May 12, 2026

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danishprakash reviewed May 12, 2026

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jaitjacob added 2 commits May 14, 2026 01:32

Add podman machine restart subcommand

97e6c31

Address review comments

8644c19

jaitjacob force-pushed the add-podman-machine-restart-command branch from 5fb7439 to e76d4e0 Compare May 13, 2026 20:10

github-actions Bot added the machine label May 13, 2026

Add tests

1ec2c98

jaitjacob force-pushed the add-podman-machine-restart-command branch from e76d4e0 to 1ec2c98 Compare May 13, 2026 20:50

jaitjacob requested review from Honny1, TomSweeneyRedHat, baude and danishprakash May 13, 2026 21:33

Honny1 requested changes May 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

	Stopping an already stopped vm is not considered an error so running restart on a stopped vm just
	Stopping an already stopped virtual machine is not considered an error so running restart on a stopped virtual machine just

	fmt.Printf("Machine %q started successfully\n", vmName)
	fmt.Printf("Machine %q restarted successfully\n", vmName)

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jaitjacob commented May 11, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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TomSweeneyRedHat commented May 12, 2026

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baude commented May 12, 2026

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packit-as-a-service Bot commented May 13, 2026

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jaitjacob commented May 11, 2026 •

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