resolver library patch

[Arthur W. Neilson III]

I realize underscores in hostnames are illegal, per RFC952, RFC1101,RFC1033
et cetera however I am trying to get my FreeBSD 4.4-Stable boxes to coexist=
 in
a Micrsoft dominated shop and the MS admins will not rename their boxes due
to the hostnames with underscores being proliferated in our internal=
 network,
embedded into config files and applications ad nauseum.

FreeBSD uses the bind resolver library, it is built into libc and when I=
 use functions
as gethostbyname and gethostbyaddr they may call the bind res_ routines=
 which
fail on hostnames with underscores.  Is there a *patch* I can apply to the=
 resolver
library code to make it allow the underscores?  I've hunted though the code=
 to no avail,
I can't find where the hostname checking is done.  This is driving me nuts=
 as I am using
FreeBSD on several boxes to monitor via snmp and the darn names of these NT=
 boxes
just won't resolve.

The bind on our FreeBSD boxen is

named 8.2.4-REL Sat Dec  8 12:06:37 HST 2001
        art at ns1.pilikia.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/usr.sbin/named

So the res_ routines are from that Bind version.

I'd appreciate any help anyone can provide, I know this question has been=
 asked
a gazillion times before however I searched the net via google and the=
 Bind-users list
archives and couldn't find a patch anywhere.

--
    __
   /  )    _/_  It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.
  /--/ __  /    Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories,
 /  (_/ (_<__   Instead of theories to suit facts.
                     -- Sherlock Holmes, "A Scandal in Bohemia"
 Arthur W. Neilson III, WH7N - FISTS #7448
 Bank of Hawaii Network Services
 http://www.pilikia.net
 art at pilikia.net, aneilson at boh.com, wh7n at arrl.net