Can anyone explain localhost phenomenon?

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Sun, 2013-02-03 at 15:42 +0100, Gabor Gombas wrote:
> IIRC MySQL tries to use an UNIX socket instead of TCP for connecting to
> the server when it sees the "localhost" string. If e.g. sendmail runs
> chrooted, then it won't see the MySQL server's socket, therefore it
> won't be able to connect.

What happens if, instead of the literal "localhost", you say
"127.0.0.1".  Hi-jacking the localhost string seems wrong, but it might
be accepted/well-known behavior at this point.  And possibly buried in
the MySQL library [and not in SASL; in fact, I'd wager that is true.
Shortcuts and general funny-business is pretty much MySQL's primary
prerogative].