Resolving .local domain FQDN on client

["Richard Harb (debian)" <debian@silmatie.com>]

Hello list,

I have a server running bind that is master for 'domain.local'.
When I try to use a FQDN from within an application on my debian 
etch  'desktop machine' (e.g. in a browser: http://host.domain.local/) it 
does not resolve / ask the DNS server for the address.

with the tool 'host' I can resolve queries just fine. 
e.g. for hostname 'svn'
$ host svn
or
$ host svn.domain.local
I get the correct answer and a request to the DNS server is made as I can see 
in the debug log there.

$ ping svn
succeeds, it obviously adds the domain as found in resolv.conf (search 
domain.local) to the host part 
while
$ ping svn.domain.local
fails. No query to the server is made, thus no address resolved, ping fails.

IIRC it's been working fine until maybe about 1-2 months ago. I think I did an 
apt-get upgrade after which it stopped working, but I didn't notice right 
away and in the meantime I can't recall an exact date so I could maybe check 
the log file for what's exactly been upgraded - and might be at fault.
A search on the web, list etc. didn't give me any clues either ...

Does anyone have any idea about where I could look (man, url, ...) or what the 
problem might be?

Thanks

Richard