plcontainer cannot start a container when using podman

Products

• VMware Tanzu Data Suite
• VMware Tanzu Greenplum
• VMware Tanzu Greenplum / Gemfire

Issue/Introduction

When trying to run a function that uses a container:

db01=# select * from pylog100();
DEBUG:  Message type Q received by from libpq, len = 34
LOG:  statement: select * from pylog100();
DEBUG:  GPORCA produced plan
DEBUG:  plcontainer: Entering call handler with  PLy_curr_procedure
DEBUG:  plcontainer: Calling python proc @ address: 0x2cac068
DEBUG:  plcontainer: fcinfo->flinfo->fn_retset: 0
DEBUG:  plcontainer: docker created with id 564b39e38d392a5595f2f4a1c6fd43bc52c177a326a8f77fd21bdd223b032986.
DEBUG:  plcontainer: container 564b39e38d392a5595f2f4a1c6fd43bc52c177a326a8f77fd21bdd223b032986 has started at Tue Jan 13 08:32:02 2026
DEBUG:  plcontainer: PLContainer: Failed to connect to /tmp/plcontainer.2728091.0.0/unix.domain.socket.shared.file: No such file or directory
DEBUG:  plcontainer: failed to connect to client. Maybe expected. dockerid: 564b39e38d392a5595f2f4a1c6fd43bc52c177a326a8f77fd21bdd223b032986
DEBUG:  plcontainer: Waiting for 25 ms for before reconnecting
DEBUG:  plcontainer: PLContainer: Failed to connect to /tmp/plcontainer.2728091.0.0/unix.domain.socket.shared.file: No such file or directory
DEBUG:  plcontainer: failed to connect to client. Maybe expected. dockerid: 564b39e38d392a5595f2f4a1c6fd43bc52c177a326a8f77fd21bdd223b032986

 

Environment

plcontainer runtime configuration:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<configuration>
        <backend name="podman" type="podman">
                <exec_path>/usr/bin/podman</exec_path>
        </backend>
        <runtime>
                <id>plc_python3_shared</id>
                <image>docker.io/library/python311.ubi9_b:latest</image>
                <command>/clientdir/py3client.sh</command>
                <shared_directory host="/usr/local/greenplum-db/bin/plcontainer_clients" container="/clientdir" access="ro"/>
                <setting use_container_logging="yes"/>
                <setting enable_network="no"/>
                <backend name="podman" />
        </runtime>
</configuration>

Cause

This may be caused by some configuration issue.

There is a code bug in the plcontainer extension version 4.3.1 and older.

Resolution

To use podman as container manager:

Upgrade Greenplum to 7.7.1 or above.

Ensure plcontainer is version 4.3.2 or above