[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!