[AndyMcConachie]

You can kinda fix this by lowering the ndots value. But probably the better way to fix this is to not include a 'search' directive at all. Don't specify anything for 'search' or 'ndots'. And then do as you say, use FQDNs everywhere.

[kiallmacinnes]

That's not always possible & wise, e.g. the example given is the Kubernetes search/ndots values. Changing this would break the expected "API" between the applications in Kube and the Kube cluster, which is bound to cause some pain and suffering down the line :)

Using a FQDN (as in, a DNS name with the trailing dot) is the only reliable way to avoid this without breaking other things!