nss-mdns is a plugin for the GNU Name Service Switch (NSS) functionality
of the GNU C Library (glibc) which provides host name resolution via
Multicast DNS (a.k.a. Zeroconf, a.k.a. Apple Rendezvous, a.k.a Apple Bonjour).
This effectively allows name resolution by common Unix/Linux programs in the
ad-hoc mDNS domain .local.

By default nss-mdns tries to contact a running avahi-daemon for resolving
host names and addresses and making use of its superior record caching.
Optionally nss-mdns can be compiled with a mini mDNS stack that can be
used to resolve host names without a local Avahi installation. Both Avahi
support and this mini mDNS stack are optional, however at least one of the
needs to be enabled. If both are enabled a connection to Avahi is tried first,
and if that fails the mini mDNS stack is used.  This build script enables 
both, but the mini mDNS stack will be used on a default Slackware install,
as Avahi is not included.

To test, the following command should return a mapping for the remote host:
  getent hosts <hostname>.local