Quadlet --restart=unless-stopped toggle

[lethedata]

The idea here it to add an option that would place --restart=unless-stopped into the ExecStart= line instead of the default --rm. Unlike #27591 and #19620 the idea here is not to be able to preserve state, but rather allow compatibility with tools that dynamically start and stop containers from the docker/podman.sock without having to manually create service files or an override, basically stay in quadlet configurations.

From a service management perspective, when used with Container Notify=healthy, Service Type=oneshot, Restart=on-failure, and RemainAfterExit=yes, these services would provide an initial clean up state for these containers with the expectation they are going to be dynamically started and stopped. Think a dedicated user account running 1 rootless container with access to the podman.sock which can control other instanced style containers (templated quadlets).

This would be a pretty useful addition while remaining in the ephemeral nature of quadlets.

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In a less "advertise the plan" way, I'm actually running this type of setup and the biggest struggle is dealing with the instanced containers. I was using an override file but anytime I adjusted anything in the container file I'd have to redo the override (basically copy the generated ExecStart and replace that one flag). I have migrated to .service files based on the generated ones which helps, but kinda sucks having to deal with the instance services outside of .container files when the only reason for it seems to be the hardcoded --rm flag.