Not a user of rpc.bootparamd(8), but it compiles and starts with either IP
address or hostname provided for -r.

Tests, OKs?

diff --git bootparamd.c bootparamd.c
index c58c4e9b897..0d848f57eea 100644
--- bootparamd.c
+++ bootparamd.c
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ usage(void)
 int
 main(int argc, char *argv[])
 {
-	struct hostent *he;
+	struct addrinfo hints, *res;
 	struct stat buf;
 	SVCXPRT *transp;
 	int    c;
@@ -77,15 +77,16 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 			debug = 1;
 			break;
 		case 'r':
-			if (inet_aton(optarg, &route_addr) == 1)
-				break;
-			he = gethostbyname(optarg);
-			if (!he) {
+			memset(&hints, 0, sizeof(hints));
+			hints.ai_family = AF_INET;
+
+			if (getaddrinfo(optarg, NULL, &hints, &res) != 0) {
 				warnx("no such host: %s", optarg);
 				usage();
 			}
-			bcopy(he->h_addr, &route_addr.s_addr,
-			    sizeof(route_addr.s_addr));
+			route_addr =
+			    ((struct sockaddr_in *)res->ai_addr)->sin_addr;
+			freeaddrinfo(res);
 			break;
 		case 'f':
 			bootpfile = optarg;

-- 
In my defence, I have been left unsupervised.