GETENT(1)                  OpenBSD Reference Manual                  GETENT(1)

NAME
     getent - get entries from administrative database

SYNOPSIS
     getent database [key ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The getent program retrieves and displays entries from the administrative
     database specified by database.  The order in which entries are looked up
     is defined by the specific database (for example, the lookup order for
     the ``hosts'' database is determined by resolv.conf(5)).  The display
     format for a given database is as per the ``traditional'' file format for
     that database.

     database may be one of:

           Database    Display format
           ethers      address name
           group       group:passwd:gid:[member[,member]...]
           hosts       address name [alias ...]
           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

     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.

DIAGNOSTICS
     getent 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.

SEE ALSO
     ethers(5), group(5), hosts(5), networks(5), passwd(5), protocols(5),
     rpc(5), services(5), shells(5)

HISTORY
     A getent command first appeared in OpenBSD 3.9.  It was based on the com-
     mand of the same name in Solaris and Linux.

OpenBSD 4.7                     January 3, 2010                              1
