Limits of Podman System Backup Regarding Host Configuration Inclusion

Goal: ensure backup includes all data needed for full environment recovery, including configuration files.

Constraint: current backup stops Podman service and only archives graphroot contents (images, containers, volumes, networks); configuration files like registries.conf, storage.conf, policy.json reside outside graphroot and are not captured; no built‑in option to include them; version assumption Podman 4.3+.

Uncertainty: whether extending backup to automatically bundle these files would break rootless mode assumptions or introduce host‑specific dependencies; also whether users prefer manual separation for flexibility.

Should podman system backup provide a flag to include host configuration files? How would such a flag behave in rootless versus rootful modes? What verification steps would confirm that restored configuration matches the original?