diff --git a/system/getent b/system/getent
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+#!/usr/bin/python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+# (c) 2014, Brian Coca <brian.coca+dev@gmail.com>
+#
+# This file is part of Ansible
+#
+# Ansible is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# Ansible is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with Ansible.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+#
+
+
+DOCUMENTATION = '''
+---
+module: getent
+short_description: a wrapper to the unix getent utility
+description:
+     - Runs getent against one of it's various databases and returns information into the host's facts
+version_added: "1.6"
+options:
+    database:
+        required: True
+        description:
+            - the name of a getent database supported by the target system (passwd, group, hosts, etc).
+    key:
+        required: False
+        default: ''
+        description:
+            - key from which to return values from the specified database, otherwise the full contents are returned.
+    split:
+        required: False
+        default: None
+        description:
+            - character used to override the split the database values into lists/arrays, i.e ':' or '\t'.
+notes: [ Not all databases support enumeration, check system documentation for details ]
+requirements: [ ]
+author: Brian Coca
+'''
+
+EXAMPLES = '''
+# get root user info
+- getent: database=passwd key=root split=':'
+
+# get all groups
+- getent: database=group split=':'
+
+# get all hosts, split by tab
+- getent: database=hosts
+
+# get http service info
+- getent: database=services key=http
+
+# get user password hash (requires sudo/root)
+- getent: database=shadow key=www-data split=:
+
+'''
+
+def main():
+    module = AnsibleModule(
+        argument_spec = dict(
+            database = dict(required=True),
+            key      = dict(required=False, default=None),
+            split    = dict(required=False, default=None),
+        ),
+        supports_check_mode = True,
+    )
+
+    database = module.params['database']
+    key      = module.params.get('key')
+    split    = module.params.get('split')
+
+    getent_bin = module.get_bin_path('getent', True)
+
+    if key is not None:
+        cmd = [ getent_bin, database, key ]
+    else:
+        cmd = [ getent_bin, database ]
+
+    try:
+        rc, out, err = module.run_command(cmd)
+    except Exception, e:
+        module.fail_json(msg=str(e))
+
+    msg = "Unexpected failure!"
+    dbtree = 'getent_%s' % database
+    results = { dbtree: {} }
+
+    if rc == 0:
+        for line in out.splitlines():
+            record = line.split(split)
+            results[dbtree][record[0]] = record[1:]
+
+        module.exit_json(ansible_facts=results)
+
+    elif rc == 1:
+        msg = "Missing arguments, or database unknown."
+    elif rc == 2:
+        results[dbtree][key] = None
+        module.exit_json(ansible_facts=results, msg="One or more supplied key could not be found in the database.")
+    elif rc == 3:
+        msg = "Enumeration not supported on this database."
+
+    module.fail_json(msg=msg)
+
+# import module snippets
+from ansible.module_utils.basic import *
+
+main()
+