Podman v6.0.0 moves rootless networking to Netavark, Pasta, and nftables

Category: Dev tools
Status: confirmed
Sources: Podman blog, HN discussion
Summary: Podman 6.0.0 shipped 2026-07-02. It transitions the default networking stack away from slirp4netns and iptables toward Netavark, Pasta, and nftables, and adds experimental Pesto rootless port forwarding for custom networks. Quadlet gains a REST API, expanded .volume unit features, and more distribution search paths, and a new podman machine os update command maintains the machine VM. Docker API compatibility and command output are refined for easier migration.
Comments: HN commenters welcomed the networking rework and asked about migrating existing Docker Compose setups; sentiment leaned toward Podman as the cleaner rootless implementation.
Why it matters: The networking backend change alters firewall and port-forwarding behavior for rootless containers, so operators upgrading from Podman 5.x should test connectivity and custom network setups.
Follow-up: Track breaking-change reports from the slirp4netns-to-Pasta and iptables-to-nftables transition and Pesto stabilization.