podman -c ConnectionName doesn't imply --remote

[Romain-Geissler-1A]

Is this a BUG REPORT or FEATURE REQUEST? (leave only one on its own line)

/kind bug

Description

podman -c ConnectionName doesn't imply flag --remote while I would expect it. It's a bit confusing that if you forgot the --remote flag, then arguments like -c ConnectionName or --url URL are totally ignored. Note that the more or less equivalent "docker context" command (docker -c ContextName) works without any additional flags.

Steps to reproduce the issue:

1. I have a local setup where "podman.sock" is a regular socker to my local machine (x86_64). And more exotically, I have also a local unix socket named "podman-aarch64.sock" which thanks to the magic of ssh port redirection is actualling targetting a remote podman server on a aarch64 machine. On this remote aarch64 machine, the local podman socket is available at path /run/user/1002/podman/podman.sock.

All these commands are run in a podman in podman scenarios, using quay.io/podman/upstream to check for latest podman version.

[root@102b9b87ef87 /]# ls -la /run/podman/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 Feb 15 18:05 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 56 Feb 15 22:32 ..
srw------- 1 root root  0 Feb 15 18:05 podman-aarch64.sock
srw-rw---- 1 root root  0 Feb 15 15:47 podman.sock

[root@102b9b87ef87 /]# podman system connection add aarch64 unix:///run/podman/podman-aarch64.sock

[root@102b9b87ef87 /]# podman system connection list
Name        URI                                     Identity    Default
aarch64     unix:///run/podman/podman-aarch64.sock              true    <--- It's weird to see only one single connection here, marked default,
                                                                       <--- which is actually ignored. Docker "default" context always exists, and by default points to the local docker socket.

[root@102b9b87ef87 /]# podman info|grep sock
    path: /run/podman/podman.sock
[root@102b9b87ef87 /]# podman -c aarch64 info|grep sock
    path: /run/podman/podman.sock  <--- Here I would expect the aarch64 socket (/run/user/1002/podman/podman.sock)
[root@102b9b87ef87 /]# podman --remote -c aarch64 info|grep sock
    path: /run/user/1002/podman/podman.sock <--- This is the good "expected" socket.

Describe the results you received:

I would expect the command podman -c aarch64 info|grep sock to return the aarch64 socket.

Describe the results you expected:

It returns the local x86_64 socket instead.

Additional information you deem important (e.g. issue happens only occasionally):

Output of podman version:

[root@102b9b87ef87 /]# podman version
Client:       Podman Engine
Version:      4.0.0-dev
API Version:  4.0.0-dev
Go Version:   go1.16.14
Git Commit:   5977fd509582d6dc8727ce8f8a78011888a1dc17
Built:        Tue Feb 15 08:06:36 2022
OS/Arch:      linux/amd64```

**Have you tested with the latest version of Podman and have you checked the Podman Troubleshooting Guide? (https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/troubleshooting.md)**

Yes

[rhatdan]

Please open a PR to activate --remote if those options are used. Seems reasonable to me.

[afbjorklund]

There was a similar change to activate remote for CONTAINER_HOST, before environment variables got out of fashion

• Make use of remoting support consistent between platforms (CONTAINER_HOST) #11196