getent(1M)						  System Administration Commands						getent(1M)

NAME

       getent - get entries from administrative database

SYNOPSIS

       getent database [key]...

DESCRIPTION

       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, project,  net-
       works,  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),   getprotoby-
       name(3SOCKET), ethers(3SOCKET), getprojbyname(3PROJECT) 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),  project(4),  hosts(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. Enumer-
       ation is not supported on ipnodes.

   Key Interpretation for passwd and group Databases
       When getent is invoked with database set to passwd, each key value is processed as follows:

	   o	  If  the  key	value consists only of numeric characters, getent assumes that the key value is a numeric user ID and searches the
		  user database for a matching user ID.

	   o	  If the user ID is not found in the user database or if the key value contains any non-numeric characters, getent assumes the key
		  value is a user name and searches the user database for a matching user name.

       Similarly, when getent is invoked with database set to group, each key value is processed as follows:

	   o	  If  the  key value consists only of numeric characters, getent assumes that the key value is a numeric group ID and searches the
		  group database for a matching group ID.

	   o	  If the group ID is not found in the group database or if the key value contains any non-numeric characters, getent  assumes  the
		  key value is a group name and searches the group database for a matching group name.

EXIT STATUS

       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.

FILES

       /etc/nsswitch.conf    name service switch configuration file

       /etc/passwd	     password file

       /etc/group	     group file

       /etc/inet/hosts	     IPv4 and IPv6 host name database

       /etc/services	     Internet services and aliases

       /etc/project	     project file

       /etc/protocols	     protocol name database

       /etc/ethers	     Ethernet address to hostname database or domain

       /etc/networks	     network name database

       /etc/netmasks	     network mask database

ATTRIBUTES

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

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWcsu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       ethers(3SOCKET),   getgrnam(3C),   gethostbyaddr(3NSL),	 gethostbyname(3NSL),	gethostent(3NSL),  getipnodebyaddr(3SOCKET),  getipnodeby-
       name(3SOCKET), getnetbyname(3SOCKET), getprojbyname(3PROJECT),  getprotobyname(3SOCKET),  getpwnam(3C),	getservbyname(3SOCKET),  group(4),
       hosts(4), netmasks(4), networks(4), nsswitch.conf(4), passwd(4), project(4), protocols(4), services(4), attributes(5)

SunOS 5.11							    26 Mar 2007 							getent(1M)