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+# Podman Golang bindings
+The Podman Go bindings are a set of functions to allow developers to execute Podman operations from within their Go based application. The Go bindings
+connect to a Podman service which can run locally or on a remote machine. You can perform many operations including pulling and listing images, starting,
+stopping or inspecting containers. Currently, the Podman repository has bindings available for operations on images, containers, pods,
+networks and manifests among others.
+
+## Quick Start
+The bindings require that the Podman system service is running for the specified user.  This can be done with systemd using the `systemctl` command or manually
+by calling the service directly.
+
+### Starting the service with system
+The command to start the Podman service differs slightly depending on the user that is running the service.  For a rootful service,
+start the service like this:
+```
+# systemctl start podman.socket
+```
+For a non-privileged, aka rootless, user, start the service like this:
+
+```
+$ systemctl start --user podman.socket
+```
+
+### Starting the service manually
+It can be handy to run the system service manually.  Doing so allows you to enable debug messaging.
+```
+$ podman --log-level=debug system service -t0
+```
+If you do not provide a specific path for the socket, a default is provided.  The location of that socket for
+rootful connections is `/run/podman/podman.sock` and for rootless it is `/run/USERID#/podman/podman.sock`. For more
+information about the Podman system service, see `man podman-system-service`.
+
+### Creating a connection
+The first step for using the bindings is to create a connection to the socket.  As mentioned earlier, the destination
+of the socket depends on the user who owns it. In this case, a rootful connection is made.
+
+```
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+
+	"github.com/containers/podman/v2/pkg/bindings"
+)
+
+func main() {
+	conn, err := bindings.NewConnection(context.Background(), "unix://run/podman/podman.sock")
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Println(err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+
+}
+```
+The `conn` variable returned from the `bindings.NewConnection` function can then be used in subsequent function calls
+to interact with containers.
+
+### Examples
+The following examples build upon the connection example from above.  They are all rootful connections as well.
+
+#### Inspect a container
+The following example obtains the inspect information for a container named `foorbar` and then prints
+the container's ID. Note the use of optional inspect options for size.
+```
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+
+	"github.com/containers/podman/v2/pkg/bindings"
+	"github.com/containers/podman/v2/pkg/bindings/containers"
+)
+
+func main() {
+	conn, err := bindings.NewConnection(context.Background(), "unix://run/podman/podman.sock")
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Println(err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+	inspectData, err := containers.Inspect(conn, "foobar", new(containers.InspectOptions).WithSize(true))
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Println(err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+	// Print the container ID
+	fmt.Println(inspectData.ID)
+}
+```
+
+#### Pull an image
+The following example pulls the image `quay.ioo/libpod/alpine_nginx` to the local image store.
+```
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+
+	"github.com/containers/podman/v2/pkg/bindings"
+	"github.com/containers/podman/v2/pkg/bindings/images"
+)
+
+func main() {
+	conn, err := bindings.NewConnection(context.Background(), "unix://run/podman/podman.sock")
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Println(err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+	_, err = images.Pull(conn, "quay.io/libpod/alpine_nginx", nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Println(err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+}
+
+```
+
+#### Pull an image, create a container, and start the container
+The following example pulls the `quay.io/libpod/alpine_nginx` image and then creates a container named `foobar`
+from it.  And finally, it starts the container.
+```
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+
+	"github.com/containers/podman/v2/pkg/bindings"
+	"github.com/containers/podman/v2/pkg/bindings/containers"
+	"github.com/containers/podman/v2/pkg/bindings/images"
+	"github.com/containers/podman/v2/pkg/specgen"
+)
+
+func main() {
+	conn, err := bindings.NewConnection(context.Background(), "unix://run/podman/podman.sock")
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Println(err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+	_, err = images.Pull(conn, "quay.io/libpod/alpine_nginx", nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Println(err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+	s := specgen.NewSpecGenerator("quay.io/libpod/alpine_nginx", false)
+	s.Name = "foobar"
+	createResponse, err := containers.CreateWithSpec(conn, s, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Println(err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+	fmt.Println("Container created.")
+	if err := containers.Start(conn, createResponse.ID, nil); err != nil {
+		fmt.Println(err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+	fmt.Println("Container started.")
+}
+```