freebsd man page for getent

GETENT(1)						    BSD 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 ...]
	   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'' sup-
     ports 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 func-
     tion 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.

SEE ALSO
     getutxent(3), ethers(5), group(5), hosts(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.

BSD
								  August 24, 2005							       BSD