Unfortunately host is maintained upstream, in the bind codebase, by ISC. You should file your bug report there, because that is the right way to get change into the ecosystem. We could fix it here, and be different, then there will be even more problems.
(Unfortunately, I expect them to mumble something like "oops" and then "backwards compatibility", which basically is the modern way of of "once a bug goes into the ecosystem, we stand behind it and support it fully". > $ host loopy.loo.found.not; print $? > Host loopy.loo.found.not not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) > 1 > > $ host loopy.loo.found.not > /dev/null; print $? > 1 > > $ host loopy.loo.found.not 2>/dev/null; print $? > Host loopy.loo.found.not not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) > 1 > > > There's a printf at line 429 of /usr/src/usr.sbin/bind/bin/dig/host.c > > Line 569's printf may also be going to STDOUT. Maybe others.... > > > Successful output to STDOUT: > > $ host www.example.org; print $? > www.example.org has address 93.184.216.119 > www.example.org has IPv6 address 2606:2800:220:6d:26bf:1447:1097:aa7 > 0 > > $ host www.example.org >/dev/null; print $? > 0
