gemini-cli PR fixes rootless podman sandbox EACCES with --userns=keep-id

VishvakR · ghdev · 2026-09-16

PR #29354 in google-gemini/gemini-cli fixes a rootless podman sandbox bug: rootless podman maps container UIDs into the host's subuid range, so files written to the bind-mounted workdir (e.g., node-gyp build dirs) become unmodifiable, surfacing as EACCES failures on native dependency rebuilds. The fix appends --userns=keep-id to podman run when sandbox host-UID mapping is active and podman is rootless. Rootless detection now reads host.security.rootless from podman info instead of checking if the caller is root, preserving behavior for sudo podman and rootful sockets. Explicit --userns in SANDBOXFLAGS wins, and Docker/runsc are untouched. Arch is affected out of the box. Validate with GEMINISANDBOX=podman npm start on a rootless podman host.

Original post →

More from coding & agent

coding & agent channel →