Lifecycle 0.21.2 regression: Bump of minimum API Version to 1.44 breaks compatibility with podman

[spc1bo3]

Summary

It appears like the bump of imgutil in #1604 has implicitly increased the minimum Docker Engine API version to v1.44 (ref. buildpacks/imgutil#301).

This change breaks compatibility of buildpacks with all released versions of podman, which up to the latest v5.7 only supports API v1.41.

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Reproduction

Steps

On a system with podman up to v5.7, run e.g. spring-boot:build-image maven goals

Current behavior

Observe output of build step

[INFO] --- spring-boot:4.0.2:build-image (default-cli) @ encryption ---

[INFO] Building image 'docker.io/<redacted>'

[INFO] 

[INFO]  > Pulling builder image 'docker.io/paketobuildpacks/builder-noble-java-tiny:latest' 100%

[INFO]  > Pulled builder image 'docker.io/paketobuildpacks/builder-noble-java-tiny@sha256:69b559f6ed13cadb810de22997217af72b1e2aaba808e6bcfd09bacf637b2ffa'

[INFO]  > Pulling run image 'docker.io/paketobuildpacks/ubuntu-noble-run-tiny:0.0.53' for platform 'linux/amd64' 100%

[INFO]  > Pulled run image 'docker.io/paketobuildpacks/ubuntu-noble-run-tiny@sha256:33b7be8544b84524ed681323bd68cde16c808800bc5b7adb5d19ed3f24d1deb1'

[INFO]  > Pulling buildpack image 'docker.io/paketobuildpacks/opentelemetry:latest' for platform 'linux/amd64' 100%

[INFO]  > Pulled buildpack image 'docker.io/paketobuildpacks/opentelemetry@sha256:651264753d65204f1ede7350acacd04573667fcc7369cf161233edd6a407bcd8'

[INFO]  > Executing lifecycle version v0.21.2

[INFO]  > Using build cache volume 'pack-cache-805684680634.build'

[INFO] 

[INFO]  > Running creator

[INFO]     [creator]     ===> ANALYZING

[INFO]     [creator]     ERROR: failed to initialize analyzer: getting previous image: inspecting image "docker.io/<redacted>": API version 1.41 is not supported by this client: the minimum supported API version is 1.44

[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Expected behavior

Ideally, API v1.41 still being supported to maintain compatibility to Podman.
Alternatively, a hint in the release notes about this breaking change being intended.

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Context

lifecycle version

[INFO] > Executing lifecycle version v0.21.2

platform version(s)

$podman version
Client:       Podman Engine
Version:      4.9.4-rhel
API Version:  4.9.4-rhel
Go Version:   go1.25.3 (Red Hat 1.25.3-2.module+el8.10.0+23746+9db33b5e)
Built:        Wed Jan 14 11:48:57 2026
OS/Arch:      linux/amd64