Missing specific Podman named pipe on Windows if DockerDesktop engine is not installed

[benoitf]

/kind feature

Description

When a podman machine starts on Windows, it checks if there is DockerDesktop or not and then if Docker Desktop is not there it will create the named pipe //./pipe/docker_engine

But if Docker Desktop engine is there, it will register the named pipe //./pipe/podman-<name-of-the-machine>

The problem is that the 'Docker emulation mode' should not prevent the specific podman channel to be created.

For example if I may want to always use the 'podman' channel to discuss on its own REST API.

Describe the results you received:

Podman named pipe is either //./pipe/podman-<name-of-the-machine> or //./pipe/docker_engine depending of if DockerDesktop is there or not.

Describe the results you expected:

Podman named pipe //./pipe/podman-<name-of-the-machine> should always be there (no matter if DockerDesktop is there or not)

Additional information you deem important (e.g. issue happens only occasionally):

I checked the named pipe available using on PowerShell the command [System.IO.Directory]::GetFiles("\\.\\pipe\\")

podman/pkg/machine/wsl/machine.go

Lines 805 to 811 in f918a94

	if !pipeAvailable(pipeName) {
	pipeName = toDist(v.Name)
	globalName = false
	if !pipeAvailable(pipeName) {
	return globalName, "", errors.Errorf("could not start api proxy since expected pipe is not available: %s", pipeName)
	}
	}

Output of podman version:

4.0.2

Output of podman info --debug:

(paste your output here)

Package info (e.g. output of rpm -q podman or apt list podman):

(paste your output here)

Have you tested with the latest version of Podman and have you checked the Podman Troubleshooting Guide? (https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/troubleshooting.md)

Yes

Additional environment details (AWS, VirtualBox, physical, etc.):

[rhatdan]

@n1hility PTAL

[n1hility]

/assign I agree it would make sense to add this, in particular since the same behavior is on the mac implementation. I went back and forth on whether there would be interest on having the second connection point, so it helps knowing there is.