Fix Podman mount on macOS by adding host.containers.internal support by Abhigyan-Shekhar · Pull Request #22451 · kubernetes/minikube

Abhigyan-Shekhar · 2026-01-14T10:18:30Z

What this PR does / why we need it

Fixes minikube mount failure on macOS when using Podman driver by adding DNS resolution support via host.containers.internal.

Which issue(s) this PR fixes

Fixes #22390

Before and After

Before:
❌ Exiting due to IF_HOST_IP: RoutableHostIPFromInside is currently only implemented for linux

After:
📁 Mounting host path ./:/app ... 🎉 Successfully mounted ./:/app

Changes

Added darwin-specific handling in RoutableHostIPFromInside
Uses host.containers.internal DNS (Podman's equivalent to Docker's host.docker.internal)
Improved error message for unsupported platforms

Testing

✅ Build passes
✅ Unit tests pass
✅ Linter clean

k8s-ci-robot · 2026-01-14T10:18:40Z

Hi @Abhigyan-Shekhar. Thanks for your PR.

I'm waiting for a kubernetes member to verify that this patch is reasonable to test. If it is, they should reply with /ok-to-test on its own line. Until that is done, I will not automatically test new commits in this PR, but the usual testing commands by org members will still work. Regular contributors should join the org to skip this step.

Once the patch is verified, the new status will be reflected by the ok-to-test label.

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minikube-bot · 2026-01-14T10:21:03Z

Can one of the admins verify this patch?

medyagh · 2026-01-14T19:02:51Z

-	return nil, fmt.Errorf("RoutableHostIPFromInside is currently only implemented for linux")
+	// Podman on macOS runs inside a VM; host.containers.internal
+	// is the supported DNS entry for host access (similar to host.docker.internal for Docker)
+	if runtime.GOOS == "darwin" {


@Abhigyan-Shekhar does this work only of a specific verison of docker or mac? or all versions ? do we need to add a check ?

This mirrors the existing Docker behavior in this file. The Docker driver uses host.docker.internal on both macOS and Windows without any explicit Docker or OS version checks (see lines 64–79). I followed the same pattern here for Podman on macOS, where host.containers.internal is documented as the standard DNS entry provided by Podman Machine / Podman Desktop for host access.

I didn’t add a version check because Docker doesn’t do so for the equivalent behavior, and I’m not aware of Podman Machine versions on macOS where host.containers.internal is conditionally unavailable once the VM is running.

At the moment this is scoped to macOS only. While Podman on Windows also runs inside a VM, I haven’t been able to verify host.containers.internal there end-to-end, so I avoided claiming Windows support without testing. I am happy to extend this to Windows as well if maintainers prefer matching Docker’s behavior.

I meant do you know if this is different in macoos 13 or 15 or intel or macos 26 ? which macos did you try it on

I tested on macOS 26.2 / Apple Silicon with Podman 5.7.1 and it works correctly. I’m not aware of behavioral differences across recent macOS versions or between Intel vs Apple Silicon for Podman Machine.
I am also attaching a screenshot showing a successful podman run alpine ping host.containers.internal run for reference.

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR fixes the minikube mount failure on macOS when using the Podman driver by adding support for DNS resolution via host.containers.internal.

Changes:

Added darwin-specific (macOS) handling in RoutableHostIPFromInside function for Podman
Utilizes host.containers.internal DNS entry (Podman's equivalent to Docker's host.docker.internal)
Improved error message to include the unsupported platform name

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Copilot · 2026-01-14T19:05:27Z

+	// Podman on macOS runs inside a VM; host.containers.internal
+	// is the supported DNS entry for host access (similar to host.docker.internal for Docker)
+	if runtime.GOOS == "darwin" {


The Docker driver at line 78 uses host.docker.internal for both Windows and macOS without a separate check for darwin. Consider whether Podman on Windows should also be supported using host.containers.internal, similar to how Docker handles both platforms with the same DNS approach. If Windows support for Podman is intended, the condition should be runtime.GOOS == "darwin" || runtime.GOOS == "windows" to match Docker's behavior.

Suggested change

// Podman on macOS runs inside a VM; host.containers.internal

// is the supported DNS entry for host access (similar to host.docker.internal for Docker)

if runtime.GOOS == "darwin" {

// Podman on macOS and Windows can run inside a VM; host.containers.internal

// is the supported DNS entry for host access (similar to host.docker.internal for Docker)

if runtime.GOOS == "darwin" || runtime.GOOS == "windows" {

I intentionally scoped this change to macOS (darwin) only. While Podman on Windows also runs inside a VM (WSL2 / Podman Desktop), I don't currently have a Windows environment to verify that host.containers.internal works reliably there for this use case. I wanted to avoid claiming Windows support without being able to test it end-to-end.

If Podman on Windows consistently provides host.containers.internal, I'm happy to extend this to windows as well (similar to Docker's handling). Otherwise, I think keeping this macOS-only is the safer approach for now.

@mloskot can you Verify this if host.containers.internal work on windows ?

@medyagh On Windows 11 Pro, I've got fresh install (it's me first time using podman on Windows) of the latest podman 5.7.1 configured with the default machine provider i.e. WSL2 and as far as I can tell the host.*.internal addressing is provisioned and works:

I hope that will do as the verification you asked for. Please, let me know if you want me to check anything else.

@Abhigyan-Shekhar please add the windows as well since @mloskot verified it

The minikube mount command fails on macOS when using Podman as the driver because RoutableHostIPFromInside only supported Linux. This adds macOS support for Podman by using DNS resolution with host.containers.internal, following the same pattern as Docker's macOS implementation which uses host.docker.internal. Changes: - Add darwin-specific handling in RoutableHostIPFromInside - Use digDNS with host.containers.internal for Podman on macOS - Improve error message for unsupported platforms The implementation mirrors Docker's approach and leverages Podman's built-in DNS resolution for host connectivity on macOS where Podman runs inside a VM (Podman Machine).

k8s-ci-robot · 2026-01-21T15:09:33Z

[APPROVALNOTIFIER] This PR is NOT APPROVED

This pull-request has been approved by: Abhigyan-Shekhar, mloskot
Once this PR has been reviewed and has the lgtm label, please assign medyagh for approval. For more information see the Code Review Process.

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k8s-ci-robot added the do-not-merge/invalid-commit-message Indicates that a PR should not merge because it has an invalid commit message. label Jan 14, 2026

k8s-ci-robot requested review from ComradeProgrammer and nirs January 14, 2026 10:18

k8s-ci-robot added needs-ok-to-test Indicates a PR that requires an org member to verify it is safe to test. size/XS Denotes a PR that changes 0-9 lines, ignoring generated files. labels Jan 14, 2026

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Abhigyan-Shekhar force-pushed the fix-podman-macos-mount branch from 31220b3 to f948afa Compare January 14, 2026 10:19

k8s-ci-robot removed the do-not-merge/invalid-commit-message Indicates that a PR should not merge because it has an invalid commit message. label Jan 14, 2026

Abhigyan-Shekhar force-pushed the fix-podman-macos-mount branch from f948afa to 8e8bfbd Compare January 14, 2026 10:22

medyagh reviewed Jan 14, 2026

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medyagh requested a review from Copilot January 14, 2026 19:03

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Abhigyan-Shekhar force-pushed the fix-podman-macos-mount branch from 8e8bfbd to 31c6235 Compare January 21, 2026 12:18

mloskot approved these changes Jan 21, 2026

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medyagh merged commit 9e4e74a into kubernetes:master Jan 23, 2026
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medyagh mentioned this pull request Jan 28, 2026

fix release-note scripts to add links #22578

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Abhigyan-Shekhar commented Jan 14, 2026 •

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