| GETENT(1) | MidnightBSD General Commands Manual | GETENT(1) |
getent — get
entries from administrative database
getent |
database [key ...] |
The getent utility retrieves and displays
entries from the administrative database specified by
database, using the lookup order specified in
nsswitch.conf(5).
The display format for a given database is as per the
“traditional” file format for that database.
The database argument may be one of:
| Database | Display format |
ethers |
address name |
group |
group:passwd:gid:[member[,member]...] |
hosts |
address name [alias ...] |
netgroup |
(host,user,domain) [...] |
networks |
name network [alias ...] |
passwd |
user:passwd:uid:gid:gecos:home_dir:shell |
protocols |
name protocol [alias ...] |
rpc |
name number [alias ...] |
services |
name port/protocol [alias ...] |
shells |
/path/to/shell |
utmpx |
[time] type: properties |
If one or more key arguments are provided,
they will be looked up in database using the
appropriate function. For example,
“passwd” supports a numeric UID or
user name; “hosts” supports an IPv4
address, IPv6 address, or host name; and
“services” supports a service name,
service name/protocol name, numeric port, or numeric port/protocol name.
If no key is provided and database supports enumeration, all entries for database will be retrieved using the appropriate enumeration function and printed.
The getent utility exits 0 on success, 1
if there was an error in the command syntax, 2 if one of the specified key
names was not found in database, or 3 if there is no
support for enumeration on database.
getutxent(3), ethers(5), group(5), hosts(5), netgroup(5), networks(5), nsswitch.conf(5), passwd(5), protocols(5), rpc(5), services(5), shells(5)
A getent command appeared in
NetBSD 3.0, and was imported into
FreeBSD 7.0. It was based on the command of the same
name in Solaris and Linux.
| June 4, 2016 | midnightbsd-3.1 |