getent – A wrapper to the unix getent utility

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Ansible/docs/2.8/modules/getent module


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_ 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

  • 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

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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© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.8/modules/getent_module.html