GETENT(1)               FreeBSD General Commands Manual              GETENT(1)

NAME
     getent - get entries from administrative database

SYNOPSIS
     getent database [key ...]

DESCRIPTION
     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.

EXIT STATUS
     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.

EXAMPLES
     Show entry for user sshd from the passwd database:

           $ getent passwd sshd
           sshd:*:22:22:Secure Shell Daemon:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin

     Show entry for TCP from the protocols database:

           $ getent protocols tcp
           tcp                   6  TCP

     Show entry for the localhost IPv6 address ::1 from the hosts database:

           $ getent hosts ::1
           ::1               localhost  localhost.my.domain

SEE ALSO
     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)

HISTORY
     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.

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6        October 24, 2020        FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6