>  That would be the right place to fix this, I think, rather 
> than just in the telnet client program.  (If it breaks for 
> telnet, why not for the library attempting to contact the KDC?)

I agree the new wrapper is the best place to fix this.

> Also, is this random flakiness, or is it a consistent problem 
> caused by incorrect configuration (e.g., if getaddrinfo uses 
> different config data, like a different nsswitch entry, from 
> gethostbyname)?

This appears through testing to be a bug or issue in the HPUX 11.22
getaddrinfo() call when provided the service name "telnet" and hostname
"localhost", despite an /etc/host entry (and appropriate nsswitch.conf
config) with:

127.0.0.1      localhost.localdomain localhost loopback

getaddrinfo() consitently returns EAI_NONAME in this case, which is
documented as indicating that either a hostname or service was not
provided, which is incorrect. 

Hope that helps,
Nate