InetAddress.getByName/getAllByName is specified to return an InetAddress instance that "refers to any of the local machine's available network addresses", when passed a `null` host String. The spec is silent on the behavior when an empty string is passed. The spec should be update to include the behavior for an empty string ( same as for null ).

Strangely getAllByName does have some reference to an empty string in its paragraph regarding security manager, "If there is a security manager and {@code host} is not null and {@code host.length() } is not equal to zero, the security manager's ..."

This issue has been filed as a result of a query posted to core-libs-dev:
http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/core-libs-dev/2018-April/052598.html