Podman to Desktop

A small Rust/egui application that discovers running rootless and rootful Podman containers and turns them into Linux .desktop launchers. A launcher opens the container's first exposed TCP port in your browser, for example:

http://localhost:13305/

Features

• Scans rootless Podman containers automatically.
• Scans rootful containers through the rootful Podman API socket or passwordless sudo. If neither is available, an Authorize rootful scan button uses pkexec/polkit to authenticate.
• Suggests the first published TCP port, falling back to the first exposed TCP port for host-network containers.
• Every container card lets you edit:
  • the launcher name,
  • the host port,
  • the browser command.
• Test in browser checks whether the port accepts a TCP connection and then launches the browser.
• Create .desktop writes a desktop entry for that container. Create all launchers does the same for every valid container.
• Adds its own icon to the application menu on first launch, so the app can be reopened without a terminal.
• Uses egui's system theme preference, so the window follows the desktop's light/dark mode.

Requirements

• Linux with a desktop environment
• Rust (edition 2024, tested with Rust 1.99)
• Podman
• xdg-open or another browser command
• Optional: passwordless sudo or pkexec for rootful containers

Installation

Recommended: install with Cargo

cargo install --git https://git.schotty.com/andrew/podman-to-desktop.git

This builds the latest revision and installs the podman-to-desktop binary into ~/.cargo/bin, so make sure that directory is on your PATH.

From a local checkout

git clone https://git.schotty.com/andrew/podman-to-desktop.git
cd podman-to-desktop
cargo install --path .

Build and run without installing

cargo run --release

The compiled binary is target/release/podman-to-desktop.

After installing, launch it from your application menu or run:

podman-to-desktop

Where launchers go

Desktop files are written to:

$XDG_DATA_HOME/applications/

or, when XDG_DATA_HOME is unset:

~/.local/share/applications/

Names follow this pattern:

podman-rootless-<container-name>.desktop
podman-rootful-<container-name>.desktop

Existing files with the same name are overwritten.

Application menu icon

On first launch the app also adds its own entry to the application menu:

~/.local/share/applications/podman-to-desktop.desktop

or $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications/podman-to-desktop.desktop when XDG_DATA_HOME is set. It appears as Podman to Desktop and launches the executable that created it, so you can reopen the app without a terminal.

If you move or reinstall the binary, press Refresh next to Application menu icon in the app to point the entry at the new executable. If the entry was removed, the same row offers Add app icon.

Browser commands

The default is xdg-open, which uses the system default browser. You can use any command, for example:

firefox
firefox --new-window
google-chrome --app=%u

Commands are split into arguments directly, without a shell. %u, %U, and {} are replaced by the container URL; if none are present, the URL is appended as the final argument.

Rootful scanning

Rootful discovery tries, in order:

1. podman --remote --url unix:///run/podman/podman.sock ps --format json
2. sudo -n podman ps --format json
3. pkexec podman ps --format json (only after you press the authorize button)

No blocking password prompt is ever opened during a normal rescan.

Tests

cargo test