The Podman documentation—except the man pages, which are a reference and not a proper learning tool—has fallen severly behind current features, unfortunately.

Examples I've personally run into:

- https://podman.io/docs doesn't mention Quadlet or Pasta anywhere.
- https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/docs/tutorials/basic_networking.md, the "Network" sidebar link at the above page, doesn't mention Pasta.
- https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-systemd.unit.5.html is probably the main source of information I used to figure out Quadlet... and it isn't linked to anywhere on docs.podman.io or podman.io/docs that I can see, though it can be found with the former's search function.

Using modern Podman features requires scrounging together information from scattered sources (the docs site, RedHat blogs, this mailing list, Reddit, GitHub issues...) plus the ability to figure out what info is still relevant. It's a sad state of affairs, and from an outsider's perspective, there's no indication of any serious ongoing improvements in this area either. Feature work looks to be proceeding nicely, but without a massive undertaking to consolidate the documentation, update it, and keep it up to date indefinitely, I don't see Podman getting widely adopted. Docker has the mindshare, tons of resources, and their documentation is thorough and up to date.

On Friday, Aug 09, 2024 at 4:23 PM, Mehdi Haghgoo via Podman <podman@lists.podman.io> wrote:
Thanks Dan,

Although quadlets have apparently been there for quite a long time, I don't find much information describing them on the Internet. Also, I don't find a quadlet executable on Mac with podman desktop installed.
From what I understand, quadlets are not much different from systemd unit files generated using podman generate. So, even after checking out your RH article, I don't get exactly what they do more than systemd unit files. Are they more manual? Have more options in the unit files?