Dumb question: why is "gethostid" a system call?

[Arthur David Olson]

Why, in 4.2bsd, is "gethostid" a system call, rather than a function that
reads information from a file and returns what's read (possibly reformatted)?

If you know, tap that 'r' key (carefully avoiding the 'f' key!) and send me
mail letting me know why.  Thanks.
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