---
name: podman-compose-bind-mount-restart
description: podman-compose up -d does NOT restart a container when only a bind-mounted config file changed — use podman restart
metadata:
  type: project
---

In Connor's stack (`/home/connor/compose.yml`, rootful podman), `podman-compose
up -d <service>` only recreates a container when the *service definition in
compose.yml* changes. Editing a bind-mounted config file — e.g.
`config/authelia/configuration.yml`, `config/litellm/config.yaml`,
`config/llama-swap/config.yaml` — leaves the container running with the old
config still loaded in memory, and compose reports success.

**Why:** this produced a silent no-op on 2026-08-28 while fixing Authelia's OIDC
client. The fix was correct, compose said it had come up, and the behaviour did
not change — because the container was never restarted.

**How to apply:** after a config-file-only edit, run `sudo podman restart
connor_<service>_1`, then confirm it took by checking the container's
`StartedAt` is LATER than the file's mtime:

    sudo podman inspect connor_authelia_1 --format '{{.State.StartedAt}}'
    stat -c %y config/authelia/configuration.yml

Don't trust the healthcheck as evidence of a restart — it can report `healthy`
within a second or two from the pre-existing state. llama-swap is the exception:
it polls its own config every 2s and reloads itself.

Related: [[zen-tos-hold]]