The getent program gathers entries from the specified administrative database using the specified search keys. Where database is one of aliases, ethers, group, hosts, netgroup, networks, passwd, protocols, rpc, services or shadow.

EXAMPLES

1 - Find which service is using specific port

$ getent services 22
ssh                   22/tcp
$ getent services 21
ftp                   21/tcp
$ getent services 25
smtp                  25/tcp mail

2 - Get the info for current logged in user

$ getent passwd `whoami`
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

3 - Perform reverse DNS lookup

$ getent hosts myhost.mydomain.com
15.77.3.40       myhost.mydomain.com myhost

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