getent gets a list of entries from the administrative database specified by database. The information generally comes from one or more of the sources that are specified for the database in /etc/nsswitch.conf.

database is the name of the database to be examined. This can be passwd, group, hosts,ipnodes, services, protocols, ethers, networks, or netmasks. For each of these databases, getent uses the appropriate library routines described in getpwnam(3C), getgrnam(3C), gethostbyaddr(3NSL), gethostbyname(3NSL), getipnodebyaddr(3SOCKET), getipnodebyname(3SOCKET), getservbyname(3SOCKET), getprotobyname(3SOCKET), ethers(3SOCKET), and getnetbyname(3SOCKET), respectively.

Each key must be in a format appropriate for searching on the respective database. For example, it can be a username or numeric-uid for passwd; hostname or IP address for hosts; or service, service/protocol, port, or port/proto for services.

getent prints out the database entries that match each of the supplied keys, one per line, in the format of the matching administrative file: passwd(4), group(4), hosts(4), ipnodes(4),services(4), protocols(4), ethers(3SOCKET), networks(4), or netmasks(4). If no key is given, all entries returned by the corresponding enumeration library routine, for example, getpwent() or gethostent(), are printed. Enumeration is not supported on ipnodes.

The following exit values are returned:

0

Successful completion.

1

Command syntax was incorrect, an invalid option was used, or an internal error occurred.

2

At least one of the specified entry names was not found in the database.

3

There is no support for enumeration on this database.

/etc/nsswitch.conf

name service switch configuration file

/etc/passwd

password file

/etc/group

group file

/etc/inet/hosts

IPv4 host name database

/etc/inet/ipnodes

IPv4 and IPv6 host name database

/etc/services

Internet services and aliases

/etc/protocols

protocol name database

/etc/ethers

Ethernet address to hostname database or domain

/etc/networks

network name database

/etc/netmasks

network mask database

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ethers(3SOCKET), getgrnam(3C), gethostbyaddr(3NSL), gethostbyname(3NSL), gethostent(3NSL), getipnodebyaddr(3SOCKET), getipnodebyname(3SOCKET), getnetbyname(3SOCKET), getprotobyname(3SOCKET), getpwnam(3C), getservbyname(3SOCKET), group(4), hosts(4), ipnodes(4), netmasks(4), networks(4), nsswitch.conf(4), passwd(4), protocols(4), services(4), attributes(5)