New man page: getent(1)

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Hi,

As previously noted on this mailing list, although the GNU C Library provides the
getent.c source code, the getent(1) man page is missing from the Linux man-pages
project.  The existing getent(1) man page found on common Linux distributions is
very short, and says very little.  I am not sure where it comes from (Debian?),
but should really be part of the man-pages project as it is functionality
provided by glibc.

I hope you will accept the following into the Linux man-pages project.  I have
written this from scratch to be much more informative and using the latest glibc
nss/getent.c as a reference.

Best regards,
Mark Bannister.

----------

.\" Copyright (c) 2011, Mark R. Bannister <cambridge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.\"
.\" This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or
.\" modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
.\" published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
.\" the License, or (at your option) any later version.
.\"
.\" The GNU General Public License's references to "object code"
.\" and "executables" are to be interpreted as the output of any
.\" document formatting or typesetting system, including
.\" intermediate and printed output.
.\"
.\" This manual is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
.\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
.\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
.\" GNU General Public License for more details.
.\"
.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
.\" License along with this manual; if not, write to the Free
.\" Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111,
.\" USA.
.\"
.TH GETENT 1 2011-10-31 "Linux" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
getent \- get entries from Name Service Switch libraries
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BI "getent " database " [ " key " ... ]"
.SH DESCRIPTION
Displays entries from databases supported by the Name Service Switch libraries,
which are configured in
.IR /etc/nsswitch.conf .
If one or more
.I key
is provided, then only the entries that match the supplied keys will be
displayed.
Otherwise, if no
.I key
is provided, all entries will be displayed (unless the database does not
support enumeration).
.LP
The
.I database
may be any supported by the GNU C Library, listed below:
.RS 3
.TP 10
.B ahosts
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR sethostent (3),
.BR gethostent (3)
and
.BR endhostent (3)
to enumerate the hosts database.
This is identical to using
.BR hosts .
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each
.I key
in succession to
.BR getaddrinfo (3)
with the address family
.BR AF_UNSPEC ,
enumerating each socket address structure returned.
.TP
.B ahostsv4
Same as
.B ahosts
except for the address family
.BR AF_INET .
.TP
.B ahostsv6
Same as
.B ahosts
except for the address family
.BR AF_INET6 .
The call to
.BR getaddrinfo (3)
in this case includes the
.B AI_V4MAPPED
flag.
.TP
.B aliases
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR setaliasent (3),
.BR getaliasent (3)
and
.BR endaliasent (3)
to enumerate the aliases database.
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each
.I key
in succession to
.BR getaliasbyname (3)
and displays the result.
.TP
.B ethers
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each
.I key
in succession to
.BR ether_aton (3)
and
.BR ether_hostton (3)
until a result is obtained, and displays the result.
Enumeration is not supported on
.BR ethers ,
so a
.I key
must be provided.
.TP
.B group
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR setgrent (3),
.BR getgrent (3)
and
.BR endgrent (3)
to enumerate the group database.
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each numeric
.I key
to
.BR getgrgid (3)
and each non-numeric
.I key
to
.BR getgrnam (3)
and displays the result.
.TP
.B gshadow
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR setsgent (3),
.BR getsgent (3)
and
.BR endsgent (3)
to enumerate the gshadow database.
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each
.I key
in succession to
.BR getsgnam (3)
and displays the result.
.TP
.B hosts
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR sethostent (3),
.BR gethostent (3)
and
.BR endhostent (3)
to enumerate the hosts database.
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each
.I key
to
.BR gethostbyaddr (3)
or
.BR gethostbyname2 (3),
depending on whether a call to
.BR inet_pton (3)
indicates that the
.I key
is an IPv6 or IPv4 address or not, and displays the result.
.TP
.B initgroups
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each
.I key
in succession to
.BR getgrouplist (3)
and displays the result.
Enumeration is not supported on
.BR initgroups ,
so a
.I key
must be provided.
.TP
.B netgroup
When one
.I key
is provided, passes the
.I key
to
.BR setnetgrent (3)
and, using
.BR getnetgrent (3)
displays the resulting string triple
.RI ( hostname ", " username ", " domainname ).
Alternatively, three
.I keys
may be provided, which are interpreted as the
.IR hostname ,
.I username
and
.I domainname
to match to a netgroup name via
.BR innetgr (3).
Enumeration is not supported on
.BR initgroups ,
so either one or three
.I keys
must be provided.
.TP
.B networks
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR setnetent (3),
.BR getnetent (3)
and
.BR endnetent (3)
to enumerate the networks database.
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each numeric
.I key
to
.BR getnetbyaddr (3)
and each non-numeric
.I key
to
.BR getnetbyname (3)
and displays the result.
.TP
.B passwd
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR setpwent (3),
.BR getpwent (3)
and
.BR endpwent (3)
to enumerate the passwd database.
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each numeric
.I key
to
.BR getpwuid (3)
and each non-numeric
.I key
to
.BR getpwnam (3)
and displays the result.
.TP
.B protocols
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR setprotoent (3),
.BR getprotoent (3)
and
.BR endprotoent (3)
to enumerate the protocols database.
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each numeric
.I key
to
.BR getprotobynumber (3)
and each non-numeric
.I key
to
.BR getprotobyname (3)
and displays the result.
.TP
.B rpc
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR setrpcent (3),
.BR getrpcent (3)
and
.BR endrpcent (3)
to enumerate the rpc database.
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each numeric
.I key
to
.BR getrpcbynumber (3)
and each non-numeric
.I key
to
.BR getrpcbyname (3)
and displays the result.
.TP
.B services
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR setservent (3),
.BR getservent (3)
and
.BR endservent (3)
to enumerate the services database.
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each numeric
.I key
to
.BR getservbynumber (3)
and each non-numeric
.I key
to
.BR getservbyname (3)
and displays the result.
.TP
.B shadow
When no
.I key
is provided, uses
.BR setspent (3),
.BR getspent (3)
and
.BR endspent (3)
to enumerate the shadow database.
When one or more
.I key
is provided, passes each
.I key
in succession to
.BR getspnam (3)
and displays the result.
.RE
.SH "EXIT STATUS"
One of the following exit values can be returned by
.BR getent :
.RS 3
.TP 10
.B 0
Command completed successfully.
.TP
.B 1
Missing arguments, or
.I database
unknown.
.TP
.B 2
One or more supplied
.I key
could not be found in the
.IR database .
.TP
.B 3
Enumeration not supported on this
.IR database .
.RE
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR nsswitch.conf (5).


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