dig hostname.domain works, dig hostname doesn't

[Mark Damrose]

"Hoff" <google at danarily.com> wrote in message
news:as0jvv$594t$1 at isrv4.isc.org...
>
> Hello,
>
> I don't understand why I can use 'dig dad.homenet' to properly resolve
> the address but not 'dig dad'.  It appears that when the domain is not
> specified, the local domain is not searched at all.  But, 'host dad'
> and 'ping dad' work just fine.
> RH7.3, BIND  9.2.0

$ man dig

       +[no]search
              Use [do not use] the search list defined by the
              searchlist or domain directive in resolv.conf (if
              any).  The search list is not used by default.