• get the entries from multiple administrative databases
  • ahosts
  • ahostsv4
  • ahostsv6
  • aliases
  • ethers
  • group
  • gshadow
  • hosts
  • initgroups
  • netgroup
  • networks
  • passwd
  • protocols
  • rpc
  • services
  • shadow
• it makes easier to get info from a single binary rather then invoking different binary for each admin. database.

Examples

• getent group