gethostbyname and nameserver resolution (complaint)-- Yellow Pages

[Michael Cohen]

Routines like ftp rlogin telnet ... do not normally have access to
nameserver resolution because neither yellow pages routines, nor
gethostbyname calls the resolver routines.  Sun has provided a standard
library of routines in /usr/lib/libresolv.a which do query the resolver,
and not the yellow pages.  The standard library of calls query the yellow
pages and not the resolver.  As a result, local yellow page masters have
to keep a hugh host table around if they want broad access.  Good access
to remote hosts only seems possible via nslookup.  Sun should properly
integrate name server queries, especially for routines like gethostbyname
with resolver routines so that they know how to use domain/nameservers.