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From: Roy Smith <r...@panix.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Subject: Re: Subprocess puzzle and two questions
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 20:07:38 -0500
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In article <pan.2012.11.15.22.54.09.449...@nowhere.com>,
 Nobody <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote:

> That's because the high-level routines aren't tied to DNS.

This is true.

>> gethostbyname() and getaddrinfo() use the NSS (name-service switch)
> mechanism, which is configured via /etc/nsswitch.conf. Depending upon
> configuration, hostnames can be looked up via a plain text file
> (/etc/hosts), Berkeley DB files, DNS, NIS, NIS+, LDAP, WINS, etc.

Gethostbyname() long predates NSS.  For that matter, I think it even 
predates DNS (i.e. back to the days when /etc/hosts was the *only* way 
to look up a hostname).

But, that's a nit.