diff --git a/package/Config.in b/package/Config.in
index 94e5f90e1..ef8491645 100644
--- a/package/Config.in
+++ b/package/Config.in
@@ -1181,6 +1181,7 @@ if BR2_PACKAGE_BUSYBOX_SHOW_OTHERS
 endif
 	source "package/dsp-tools/Config.in"
 	source "package/ftop/Config.in"
+	source "package/getent/Config.in"
 	source "package/htop/Config.in"
 	source "package/iprutils/Config.in"
 	source "package/keyutils/Config.in"
diff --git a/package/getent/Config.in b/package/getent/Config.in
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a7303cb96
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/getent/Config.in
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+config BR2_PACKAGE_GETENT
+	bool "getent"
+	help
+	  This package installs the 'getent' utility, which allows to
+	  get entries from Name Service Switch libraries. For glibc
+	  toolchains, it's the real getent program from the C library
+	  that gets installed, which is NSS-capable. For uclibc and
+	  musl toolchains, it's a simple wrapper script that emulates
+	  getent's behavior, since there is no NSS support in uclibc
+	  and musl.
diff --git a/package/getent/getent b/package/getent/getent
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fdda79363
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/getent/getent
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# $Header: /var/cvs/uClibc/extra/scripts/getent,v 1.2 2005/02/02 14:18:01 solar Exp $
+#
+# Closely (not perfectly) emulate the behavior of glibc's getent utility
+#
+#passwd|shadow|group|aliases|hosts|networks|ethers|netgroup|protocols|services|rpc
+# only returns the first match (by design)
+# dns based search is not supported (hosts,networks)
+# case-insensitive matches not supported (ethers; others?)
+# may return false-positives (hosts,protocols,rpc,services,ethers)
+#
+# Taken from uClibc 0.9.33.
+
+export PATH="${PATH}:/bin:/usr/bin"
+
+file="/etc/$1"
+case $1 in
+	passwd|group)
+		match="^$2:\|^[^:]*:[^:]*:$2:" ;;
+	shadow)
+		match="^$2:" ;;
+	networks|netgroup)
+		match="^[[:space:]]*$2\>" ;;
+	hosts|protocols|rpc|services|ethers)
+		match="\<$2\>" ;;
+	aliases)
+		match="^[[:space:]]*$2[[:space:]]*:" ;;
+	""|-h|--help)
+		echo "USAGE: $0 database [key]"
+		exit 0 ;;
+	*)
+		echo "$0: Unknown database: $1" 1>&2
+		exit 1 ;;
+esac
+
+if [ ! -f "$file" ] ; then
+	echo "$0: Could not find database file for $1" 1>&2
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ $# -eq 1 ] ; then
+	exec cat "$file"
+else
+	sed "s/#.*//; /$match/q; d" "$file" | grep . || exit 2
+fi
diff --git a/package/getent/getent.mk b/package/getent/getent.mk
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..dd0847880
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/getent/getent.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+################################################################################
+#
+# getent
+#
+################################################################################
+
+# source included in Buildroot
+GETENT_SOURCE =
+
+GETENT_VERSION = buildroot-$(BR2_VERSION)
+GETENT_LICENSE = LGPLv2.1+
+
+# For glibc toolchains, we use the getent program built/installed by
+# the C library. For other toolchains, we use the wrapper script
+# included in this package.
+ifeq ($(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_USES_GLIBC),y)
+GETENT_LOCATION = $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/getent
+else
+GETENT_LOCATION = package/getent/getent
+endif
+
+define GETENT_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
+	$(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(GETENT_LOCATION) $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin/getent
+endef
+
+$(eval $(generic-package))