[Python] Automating a podman-based CI workflow using python

I want to write a python3 script that will set up a pristine system (e.g: "fedora:42"), copy a local clone of a git repository, and run its tests. For continuous integration. I really would prefer to avoid Dockerfiles. A similar code in perl is https://github.com/thewml/website-meta-language/blob/master/CI-testing/docker-ci-run.pl . (Note that it uses podman on fedora.) I want the python3 equivalents of the methods in https://metacpan.org/pod/Docker::CLI::Wrapper::Container . Can anyone help?

https://github.com/shlomif/pysol-cards-in-C/blob/master/docker_ci.py gives me “podman.errors.exceptions.APIError: 500 Server Error: Internal Server Error (can only create exec sessions on running containers: container state improper)”.

How can i get .exec_run() to work? I want to be able to execute bash codes inside the container, see their stdout/stderr, and wait for them to finish. Synchronously.

I am on Fedora 42 x86-64 podman.

my code so far is:

#! /usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# vim:fenc=utf-8
#
# Copyright © 2025 Shlomi Fish < https://www.shlomifish.org/ >
#
# Licensed under the terms of the MIT license.

"""

"""

import json
# import time
from podman import PodmanClient

"""Demonstrate PodmanClient."""

# Provide a URI path for the libpod service. In libpod, the URI can be a unix
# domain socket(UDS) or TCP. The TCP connection has not been implemented in
# this package yet.

uri = "unix:///run/user/1000/podman/podman.sock"

with PodmanClient(base_url=uri) as client:
version = client.version()
if False:
print("Release: ", version["Version"])
print("Compatible API: ", version["ApiVersion"])
print("Podman API: ",
version["Components"][0]["Details"]["APIVersion"], "\n")

# get all images
for image in client.images.list():
print(image, image.id, "\n")

sysname = 'fedora:42'
pull = client.images.pull(sysname)
print(pull)
image = client.images.get(sysname)
# image = pull
print(image)
containers = client.containers
# container = image.create()
container = containers.create(image)
print(container)
# container.attach(eot=4)
# container.attach()
container2 = containers.run(image=image, detach=True,)
print(container)
print(container2)
# time.sleep(5)
ret = container.exec_run(
cmd='echo helloworld\n',
demux=True,
)
print(container)
print(ret)
# container.run()
print('before exec_run', container)

if False:
# find all containers
for container in client.containers.list():
# After a list call you would probably want to reload the container
# to get the information about the variables such as status.
# Note that list() ignores the sparse option and assumes True
# by default.
container.reload()
print(container, container.id, "\n")
print(container, container.status, "\n")

# available fields
print(sorted(container.attrs.keys()))

print(json.dumps(client.df(), indent=4))


Its output is:

$ python docker_ci.py
<Image: 'registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora:42'>
<Image: 'registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora:42'>
<Container: 875f2fd7e5>
<Container: 875f2fd7e5>
<Container: 754729039a>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/shlomif/progs/python/pysol-cards-in-C/docker_ci.py", line 53, in <module>
ret = container.exec_run(
cmd='echo helloworld\n',
demux=True,
)
File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/podman/domain/containers.py", line 211, in exec_run
response.raise_for_status()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/podman/api/client.py", line 82, in raise_for_status
raise APIError(cause, response=self._response, explanation=message)
podman.errors.exceptions.APIError: 500 Server Error: Internal Server Error (can only create exec sessions on running containers: container state improper)

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