-# assuming ipv4, or else we might need to deal with multiple addresses
-# in an ipv4 + ipv6 network.
-my_ip=$(ip -4 route get 8.8.8.8 | sed -nr 's,^.*src\s+(\S+).*,\1,p')
-if [[ ! $my_ip || $my_ip =~ [[:space:]] ]]; then
- echo "$0: error: failed to get \$my_ip, got: $my_ip"
- exit 1
+# somewhat duplicated in brc hostip()
+case $host in
+ default) : ;;
+ [0-9:])
+ hostip=$host
+ ;;
+ *)
+ hostip=$(getent ahostsv4 "$host" | awk '{ print $1 }' | head -n1)
+ ;;
+esac
+
+if [[ $hostip ]]; then
+
+ # assuming ipv4, or else we might need to deal with multiple addresses
+ # in an ipv4 + ipv6 network.
+ my_ip=$(ip -4 route get $hostip | sed -nr 's,^.*src\s+(\S+).*,\1,p')
+ if [[ ! $my_ip || $my_ip =~ [[:space:]] ]]; then
+ echo "$0: error: failed to get \$my_ip, got: $my_ip"
+ exit 1
+ fi
+else
+ my_ip=$(ip r show default | sed -r 's/.*via ([^ ]*).*/\1/' | head -n1)