Podman compose -f does not resolve paths

[kushuh]

Describe the bug

podman compose -f {FILENAME} fails if the file is not directly located within the directory that runs the command.

/root
  /subdir
    podman-compose.yaml

This will fail

cd /root && podman compose -f ./subdir/podman-compose.yaml up -d
# Throws FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

But this works

cd /root/subdir && podman compose -f podman-compose.yaml up -d
# Success

Output

$ podman compose -p authentication-test -f "./build/podman-compose.test.yaml" up -d
>>>> Executing external compose provider "podman-compose". Please see podman-compose(1) for how to disable this message. <<<<

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/kushuh/.local/bin/podman-compose", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
             ^^^^^^
  File "/home/kushuh/.local/pipx/venvs/podman-compose/lib/python3.11/site-packages/podman_compose.py", line 3711, in main
    asyncio.run(async_main())
  File "/usr/lib/python3.11/asyncio/runners.py", line 190, in run
    return runner.run(main)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.11/asyncio/runners.py", line 118, in run
    return self._loop.run_until_complete(task)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.11/asyncio/base_events.py", line 653, in run_until_complete
    return future.result()
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/kushuh/.local/pipx/venvs/podman-compose/lib/python3.11/site-packages/podman_compose.py", line 3707, in async_main
    await podman_compose.run()
  File "/home/kushuh/.local/pipx/venvs/podman-compose/lib/python3.11/site-packages/podman_compose.py", line 1859, in run
    self._parse_compose_file()
  File "/home/kushuh/.local/pipx/venvs/podman-compose/lib/python3.11/site-packages/podman_compose.py", line 1954, in _parse_compose_file
    with open(filename, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: './build/podman-compose.test.yaml'
Error: executing podman-compose -p authentication-test -f ./build/podman-compose.test.yaml up -d: exit status 1

$ ls ./build
podman-compose.test.yaml  podman-compose.yaml

Environment:

• OS: WSL2
• podman version: 5.4.0
• podman compose version: 1.3.0

[banditopazzo]

I have the same issue

[rafalkrupinski]

same on real Linux ;)
5.4.1/1.3.0

[banditopazzo]

I quickly tested the actual main branch on my machine (real linux 😉) and for me it works without any issue. as a workaround I am temporary using it until a new release

[jfernandorh]

Same on Fedora CoreOS
Fedora CoreOS 41.20250302.3.2
podman-compose version 1.3.0
podman version 5.4.0

[kushuh]

It looks like a path resolution issue. If it can help anyone, I use an absolute path as a temporary workaround.

podman compose -f "$PWD/subdir/podman-compose.yaml" up -d

[pofl]

Also broken on Fedora Workstation
Linux fedora 6.13.7-200.fc41.x86_64
podman-compose version 1.3.0
podman version 5.4.1

[nurislam03]

Broken for:
podman-compose version 1.3.0
podman version 5.4.0
OS/Arch: darwin/arm64