> Do you mean "resolv.conf"?  What if you don't have a nameserver?

Then you tell it to use the hosts file first. i.e.
/emul/linux/etc/resolv.conf
search hosts
or something check the linux-docs.
in NetBSD the equivalent would be:
search file

-- 
The cost of living hasn't affected it's popularity. (unknown)
current	release=doc host=wipux2.wifo.uni-mannheim.de \ "NetBSD-current mirror"
hostbase=/mit/ftp/pub/NetBSD base=/usr prefix=/usr backup delete use-rel-suffix