Minimal Example to reproduce issue of command override failure for podman-compose with include directive

README.md

Reproducible Example for override bug for command with include directive

• when trying to override a service via include -> override fails (Wrong Behavior)

• when trying to override a servive without include -> override works (Expected Behavior)

• Docker / Docker Compose -> expected behavior

• Podman / Podman Compose -> wrong behavior

Environments

Tested against the following environments for consistency

Docker / Docker Compose

$ docker version
Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           29.2.1
 API version:       1.53
 Go version:        go1.25.6
 Git commit:        a5c7197
 Built:             Mon Feb  2 17:17:26 2026
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Context:           default

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          29.2.1
  API version:      1.53 (minimum version 1.44)
  Go version:       go1.25.6
  Git commit:       6bc6209
  Built:            Mon Feb  2 17:17:26 2026
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v2.2.1
  GitCommit:        dea7da592f5d1d2b7755e3a161be07f43fad8f75
 runc:
  Version:          1.3.4
  GitCommit:        v1.3.4-0-gd6d73eb8
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

$ docker compose version
Docker Compose version v5.0.2

Podman / Podman Compose

$ podman version
Client:        Podman Engine
Version:       5.6.0
API Version:   5.6.0
Go Version:    go1.25.3 (Red Hat 1.25.3-1.el10_1)
Git Commit:    b194cd996eb74ecf0ff67d710d4b2aaa90e1c27e
Built:         Mon Jan 12 00:00:00 2026
Build Origin:  Rocky Linux Build System <releng@rockylinux.org>
OS/Arch:       linux/amd64

$ podman-compose version
podman-compose version 1.5.0
podman version 5.6.0

compose.include.yml

include:
  - compose.service.yml

compose.override.yml

services:
  test-svc:
    command:
      # trivial command (will never be executed)
      # override: run test -> run ALL test
      - run
      - ALL
      - test

compose.service.yml

services:
  test-svc:
    image: docker.io/library/alpine:latest
    command:
      # trivial command (will never be executed)
      - run
      - test

Makefile.docker

with-include:
  docker compose -f compose.include.yml -f compose.override.yml config
 
 without-include:
 docker compose -f compose.service.yml -f compose.override.yml config

Makefile.podman

with-include:
  podman-compose -f compose.include.yml -f compose.override.yml config

without-include:
  podman-compose-f compose.service.yml -f compose.override.yml config

Docker Environment Behavior

Docker_override_bug_normal.mp4

Podman Environment Behavior

Podman_override_bug.mp4

Bug Report

containers/podman-compose#1392