getent – A wrapper to the unix getent utility

Synopsis

  • Runs getent against one of it’s various databases and returns information into the host’s facts, in a getent_<database> prefixed variable.

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
database
- / required
The name of a getent database supported by the target system (passwd, group, hosts, etc).
fail_key
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
If a supplied key is missing this will make the task fail if yes.
key
-
Default:
""
Key from which to return values from the specified database, otherwise the full contents are returned.
service
-
added in 2.9
Override all databases with the specified service
The underlying system must support the service flag which is not always available.
split
-
Character used to split the database values into lists/arrays such as ':' or ' ', otherwise it will try to pick one depending on the database.

Notes

Note

  • Not all databases support enumeration, check system documentation for details.

Examples

# get root user info
- getent:
    database: passwd
    key: root
- debug:
    var: getent_passwd

# get all groups
- getent:
    database: group
    split: ':'
- debug:
    var: getent_group

# get all hosts, split by tab
- getent:
    database: hosts
- debug:
    var: getent_hosts

# get http service info, no error if missing
- getent:
    database: services
    key: http
    fail_key: False
- debug:
    var: getent_services

# get user password hash (requires sudo/root)
- getent:
    database: shadow
    key: www-data
    split: ':'
- debug:
    var: getent_shadow

Status

Red Hat Support

More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.

Authors

  • Brian Coca (@bcoca)

Hint

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