Python clients can't connect to Thrift services running on "localhost" when no network connection is available

[Partridge, Lucas (GE Aviation)]

I'm not sure whether this is a bug or something different between Java and 
Python but I thought other people might like to know this...

I had a Thrift 0.9.0 service running on my local machine in C#.  Java clients 
to this service could connect using "localhost" even when no network connection 
was available but Python clients failed with:

  File 
"C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\thrift-0.9.0-py2.7.egg\thrift\transport\TSocket.py",
 line 99, in open
    message=message)
thrift.transport.TTransport.TTransportException: Could not connect to 
localhost:9092

The workaround is to use "127.0.0.1" in Python clients. This is not necessary 
for Java clients.
Python test script:

from thrift.transport import TSocket

#host = "127.0.0.1" # Works
host = "localhost" # Fails when no network connection is available
port = 9092

transp = TSocket.TSocket(host, port)
transp.open()
print 'Transport opened'
transp.close()
print 'Transport closed'

The Java equivalent runs fine, however:

TTransport transport = new TSocket("localhost", 9092);
try {
                transport.open(); // Works even if no network connection is 
available.
...

Thanks,
Lucas.