Re: [idn] The layers and character handling in DNS

[tale@nominum.com (David C Lawrence)]

Dan writes:
> If I look at how I would like things to work, if could be like this:
> 
> user enters name in application using LOCAL character set.
> ->
> application calls routnes like: gethostbyname
> ->
> gethostbyname converts form LOCAL character set to 
> normalised (not namepreped) UTF-8 (or other format).
> it may reject the query if the name contains forbidden characters.
> and sends the query to DNS server.

How does gethostbyname() know for sure what the character set of its
argument is?