diff --git a/c/build.sh b/c/build.sh
index 1ffa9da..1717dfc 100755
--- a/c/build.sh
+++ b/c/build.sh
@@ -1,16 +1,35 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-set -euxo pipefail
 
 BUILD_SCRIPT="$1"
 shift
+
+# this will be 0 if podman, or 1 if docker
+PODMAN_NOT_DOCKER="$1"
+shift
+
 [ "" == "$BUILD_SCRIPT" ] && [ -f '.ci/build.sh' ] && BUILD_SCRIPT='.ci/build.sh'
 
+if [ "" == "$PODMAN_NOT_DOCKER" ]
+then
+    # if it's not set, we are going to prefer podman
+    which podman >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
+    PODMAN_NOT_DOCKER=$?
+fi
+
+set -euxo pipefail
+
 # this assists in cleanup, ie if a job was terminated, to be run in a jenkins finally {} or similar
 if [ "$BUILD_SCRIPT" == "docker-chown" ]
 then
-    # chown everything in this directory to this uid/gid
-    docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)":/tmp alpine chown -R "$UID:$(id -g)" /tmp
-    exit $?
+    if [ $PODMAN_NOT_DOCKER -eq 0 ]
+    then
+        # we don't have to do anything here
+        exit 0
+    else
+        # chown everything in this directory to this uid/gid
+        docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)":/tmp alpine chown -R "$UID:$(id -g)" /tmp
+        exit $?
+    fi
 fi
 
 docker_build() {
@@ -18,18 +37,31 @@ docker_build() {
     shift
     DOCKER_IMAGE="$1"
     shift
-
-    # run it, but after, chown anything left in /tmp to *this* uid/gid, otherwise we can't delete them later...
-    docker run --rm -e ARCH -e BRANCH_NAME -e BUILD_UID="$UID" -e BUILD_GID="$(id -g)" -v "$(pwd)":/tmp -w /tmp "$DOCKER_IMAGE" sh -c "umask a=rwx; \"\$@\"; exit=\$?; chown -R '$UID:$(id -g)' /tmp; exit \$exit" -- "$@"
+    
+    if [ $PODMAN_NOT_DOCKER -eq 0 ]
+    then
+        # just run it and don't chown
+        podman run --rm -e ARCH -e BRANCH_NAME -v "$(pwd)":/tmp -w /tmp "$DOCKER_IMAGE" sh -c "umask a=rwx; \"\$@\"" -- "$@"
+    else
+        # run it, but after, chown anything left in /tmp to *this* uid/gid, otherwise we can't delete them later...
+        docker run --rm -e ARCH -e BRANCH_NAME -e BUILD_UID="$UID" -e BUILD_GID="$(id -g)" -v "$(pwd)":/tmp -w /tmp "$DOCKER_IMAGE" sh -c "umask a=rwx; \"\$@\"; exit=\$?; chown -R '$UID:$(id -g)' /tmp; exit \$exit" -- "$@"
+    fi
 }
 
-docker_build 'amd64'   'alpine'                                 "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
+docker_build 'amd64'   'docker.io/alpine'                                 "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
 
-# before first multiarch image, must register binfmt handlers
-docker run --rm --privileged multiarch/qemu-user-static:register --reset
+# before first multiarch image, must register binfmt handlers, for rootless podman we require sudo
+if [ $PODMAN_NOT_DOCKER -eq 0 ]
+then
+    # to securely enable this run `visudo` and add this where `jenkins` is your user:
+    # jenkins ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/podman run --rm --privileged docker.io/multiarch/qemu-user-static\:register --reset
+    sudo podman run --rm --privileged docker.io/multiarch/qemu-user-static:register --reset
+else
+    docker run --rm --privileged docker.io/multiarch/qemu-user-static:register --reset
+fi
 
-docker_build 'i386'    'multiarch/alpine:i386-latest-stable'    "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
-docker_build 'aarch64' 'multiarch/alpine:aarch64-latest-stable' "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
-docker_build 'armv7'   'multiarch/alpine:armv7-latest-stable'   "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
-docker_build 'armhf'   'multiarch/alpine:armhf-latest-stable'   "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
-docker_build 'ppc64le' 'multiarch/alpine:ppc64le-latest-stable' "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
+docker_build 'i386'    'docker.io/multiarch/alpine:i386-latest-stable'    "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
+docker_build 'aarch64' 'docker.io/multiarch/alpine:aarch64-latest-stable' "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
+docker_build 'armv7'   'docker.io/multiarch/alpine:armv7-latest-stable'   "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
+docker_build 'armhf'   'docker.io/multiarch/alpine:armhf-latest-stable'   "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"
+docker_build 'ppc64le' 'docker.io/multiarch/alpine:ppc64le-latest-stable' "$BUILD_SCRIPT" "$@"