i'm not in love with the tool (i always use dig), i'm just saying
	i don't follow your argument.  for me not shipping certain
	tool in a package needs a rock solid reason, your argument does not
	really sound to me a reason for keeping local patch around (pkgsrc
	maintenance cost is biting us so I'll do virtually anything to decrease
	the number of costmetic or reason-less diffs).

>> 	- no reason was given for removal of "host"
>> 	so i simplified it with reason (less local patch = better).
>> 	you are not on MAINTAINER so i did not bother to ask, sorry.
>I can only supply so much information in a PR.  If I had commit access
>I'd have already replaced the in-tree version of 'host' and then the
>correct solution would be more obvious.

	next time, you may want to put one-line comment at the top of patch-ac,
	following $NetBSD$ tag at the top.

>> >The 'host' utility must be a separate package made for the *real* 'host'
>> >as the ancient BIND version would conflict.  I.e. the one at:
>> >	ftp://ftp.nikhef.nl/pub/network/host.tar.Z
>> 	the behavior is not compatible, so i can imagine some prefers
>> 	BIND8 host, and some prefer nikhef host.  please create BIND8
>> 	host tool too.
>It depends on what you mean by "not compatible".
>
>W.r.t. command-line options (the things fingers form habits over), they
>are in fact very compatible, and the behavior of each old option is
>almost (with, I think, the exception of '-a') identical in the new
>version.  The new 'host' is after all a direct decendent of the ancient
>one, and meant to be upwards compatible.

	i can't seem to make them behave equally.  are we seeing the same tool?

(BIND8 host)
% /usr/bin/host
host: usage error (missing host argument)
Usage: host [-adlrwv] [-t querytype] [-c class] host [server]
        -a is equivalent to '-v -t *'
        -c class to look for non-Internet data
        -d to turn on debugging output
        -l to turn on 'list mode'
        -r to disable recursive processing
        -s recursively chase signature found in answers
        -t querytype to look for a specific type of information
        -v for verbose output
        -w to wait forever until reply
% /usr/bin/host www.netbsd.org
www.netbsd.org is a nickname for nbwww.isc.org
nbwww.isc.org has address 204.152.186.171

(new-host)
% /tmp/h/host 
Usage:      host [-v] [-a] [-t querytype] [options]  name  [server]
Listing:    host [-v] [-a] [-t querytype] [options]  -l zone  [server]
Hostcount:  host [-v] [options] -H [-D] [-E] [-G] zone
Check soa:  host [-v] [options] -C zone
Addrcheck:  host [-v] [options] -A host
Listing options: [-L level] [-S] [-A] [-p] [-P prefserver] [-N skipzone]
Common options:  [-d] [-f|-F file] [-I chars] [-i|-n] [-q] [-Q] [-T] [-Z]
Other options:   [-c class] [-e] [-m] [-o] [-r] [-R] [-s secs] [-u] [-w]
Special options: [-O srcaddr] [-j minport] [-J maxport]
Extended usage:  [-x [name ...]] [-X server [name ...]]
% /tmp/h/host www.netbsd.org
www.netbsd.org          CNAME   nbwww.isc.org
nbwww.isc.org           A       204.152.186.171

>As for human preferences, well I can't even imagine any complaints about
>output format for humans as being valid in any way -- humans can adapt
>in the blink of an eye, and if they don't then they know how to read the
>manual page to get what they want.  Is there really any significant
>difference for a human?  Who cares?  Has anyone ever said they prefer
>the output of the ancient one over the new one, or are you just
>imagining that they might?

	well, you are the only one I've seen who is vocal about this particular
	preference about new-host and BIND8-host.  all the latest releases of
	*BSD ship with either BIND4 or BIND8 host in /usr/bin/host, i have
	never heard of plans to replace them.

>I'm not sure what you mean by a "create a BIND8 host tool too".  If you
>mean you'd like to see a "pkgsrc/net/host-ancient" package, then there's
>no point -- it's ancient and already deprecated in future versions of
>BIND (despite the fact that some fools find the time to hack on it and
>patches occasionally make it back into updates of previous versions).
>I've no time to support software I haven't installed or used for over
>half a decade (and it's *much* older than that, 1983)!

	which future version of BIND are you talking about?  could you clarify?

% pwd
/usr/home/itojun/NetBSD/pkgsrc/net/bind9
% find work.i386 -name host.c -print
work.i386/bind-9.1.0/bin/dig/host.c
% grep host /var/db/pkg/bind-9.1.0/*
itojun[starfruit:~/NetBSD/pkgsrc/net/bind9] grep host /var/db/pkg/bind-9.1.0/*
/var/db/pkg/bind-9.1.0/+BUILD_INFO:CONFIGURE_ARGS= --disable-threads --with-libtool=yes  --sysconfdir=/etc  --localstatedir=/var --host=i386--netbsd --prefix=/usr/pkg
/var/db/pkg/bind-9.1.0/+CONTENTS:bin/host
/var/db/pkg/bind-9.1.0/+CONTENTS:man/man1/host.1

itojun