podman-secret-create(1) General Commands Manual podman-secret-create(1)

podman-secret-create - Create a new secret

podman secret create [options] name file|-

Creates a secret using standard input or from a file for the secret content.

Create accepts a path to a file, or -, which tells podman to read the secret from stdin

A secret is a blob of sensitive data which a container needs at runtime but is not stored in the image or in source control, such as usernames and passwords, TLS certificates and keys, SSH keys or other important generic strings or binary content (up to 500 kb in size).

Secrets are not committed to an image with podman commit, and does not get committed in the archive created by a podman export command.

Secrets can also be used to store passwords for podman login to authenticate against container registries.

--driver, -d=driver

Specify the secret driver (default file).

--driver-opts=key1=val1,key2=val2

Specify driver specific options.

--env=false

Read secret data from environment variable.

--help

Print usage statement.

--label, -l=key=val1,key2=val2

Add label to secret. These labels can be viewed in podman secrete inspect or ls.

--replace=false

If existing secret with the same name already exists, update the secret. The --replace option does not change secrets within existing containers, only newly created containers.
The default is false.

Secret resides in a read-protected file.

Secret resides in a GPG-encrypted file.

Secret is managed by custom scripts. An environment variable SECRET_ID is passed to the scripts (except for list), and secrets are communicated via stdin/stdout (where applicable). Driver options list, lookup, store, and delete serve to install the scripts:

[secrets]
driver = "shell"
[secrets.opts]
list =
lookup =
store =
delete =

Create the specified secret based on local file.

echo -n mysecret > ./secret.txt
$ podman secret create my_secret ./secret.txt

Create the specified secret via stdin.

$ printf <secret> | podman secret create my_secret -

Create gpg encrypted secret based on local file using the pass driver.

$ podman secret create --driver=pass my_secret ./secret.txt.gpg

Create a secret from an environment variable called 'MYSECRET'.

$ podman secret create --env=true my_secret MYSECRET

podman(1), podman-secret(1), podman-login(1)

January 2021, Originally compiled by Ashley Cui acui@redhat.com ⟨mailto:acui@redhat.com⟩ February 2024, Added example showing secret creation from an environment variable by Brett Calliss brett@obligatory.email ⟨mailto:brett@obligatory.email⟩