.\"	$OpenBSD: getent.1,v 1.6 2008/06/26 05:42:21 ray Exp $
.\"	$NetBSD: getent.1,v 1.13 2005/09/11 23:16:15 wiz Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2004 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
.\" by Luke Mewburn.
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.Dd $Mdocdate: June 26 2008 $
.Dt GETENT 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm getent
.Nd get entries from administrative database
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Ar database
.Op Ar key ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
program retrieves and displays entries from the administrative
database specified by
.Ar database .
The order in which entries are looked up
is defined by the specific database
(for example, the lookup order for the
.Dq hosts
database is determined by
.Xr resolv.conf 5 ) .
The display format for a given
.Ar database
is as per the
.Dq traditional
file format for that database.
.Pp
.Ar database
may be one of:
.Pp
.Bl -column "netgroup" -offset indent -compact
.Sy Database Ta Sy Display format
.It ethers Ta address name
.It group Ta group:passwd:gid:[member[,member]...]
.It hosts Ta address name [alias ...]
.It networks Ta name network [alias ...]
.It passwd Ta user:passwd:uid:gid:gecos:home_dir:shell
.It protocols Ta name protocol [alias ...]
.It rpc Ta name number [alias ...]
.It services Ta name port/protocol [alias ...]
.It shells Ta /path/to/shell
.El
.Pp
If one or more
.Ar key
arguments are provided, they will be looked up in
.Ar database
using the appropriate function.
For example,
.Sy passwd
supports a numeric UID or user name;
.Sy hosts
supports an IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or host name;
and
.Sy services
supports a service name, service name/protocol name, numeric port, or
numeric port/protocol name.
.Pp
If no
.Ar key
is provided and
.Ar database
supports enumeration, all entries for
.Ar database
will be retrieved using the appropriate enumeration function and printed.
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Nm
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
.Ar database ,
or 3 if there is no support for enumeration on
.Ar database .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ethers 5 ,
.Xr group 5 ,
.Xr hosts 5 ,
.Xr networks 5 ,
.Xr passwd 5 ,
.Xr protocols 5 ,
.Xr rpc 5 ,
.Xr services 5 ,
.Xr shells 5
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
command first appeared in
.Ox 3.9 .
It was based on the command of the same name in
.Tn Solaris
and
.Tn Linux .