####> This option file is used in:
####>   podman create, pod clone, pod create, run, update
####> If file is edited, make sure the changes
####> are applicable to all of those.
#### **--restart**=*policy*

Restart policy to follow when containers exit.
Restart policy does not take effect if a container is stopped via the **podman kill** or **podman stop** commands.

Valid _policy_ values are:

- `no`                       : Do not restart containers on exit
- `never`                    : Synonym for **no**; do not restart containers on exit
- `on-failure[:max_retries]` : Restart containers when they exit with a non-zero exit code, retrying indefinitely or until the optional *max_retries* count is hit
- `always`                   : Restart containers when they exit, regardless of status, retrying indefinitely
- `unless-stopped`           : Restart containers when they exit, unless the container was explicitly stopped by the user. After a system reboot, containers with this policy will be restarted by podman-restart.service only if they were not explicitly stopped by the user before the reboot. This differs from **always**, which restarts containers after a system reboot regardless of whether they were user-stopped

Podman provides a systemd unit file, podman-restart.service, which restarts containers after a system reboot.

When running containers in systemd services, use the restart functionality provided by systemd.
In other words, do not use this option in a container unit, instead set the `Restart=` systemd directive in the `[Service]` section.
See **podman-systemd.unit**(5) and **systemd.service**(5).
