Documentation

getent - A wrapper to the unix getent utility

New in version 1.8.

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
    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.
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

This module is flagged as stableinterface which means that the maintainers for this module guarantee that no backward incompatible interface changes will be made.

Support

For more information about Red Hat’s support of this module, please refer to this Knowledge Base article

Author

  • Brian Coca (@bcoca)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.