[DRE-maint] Bug#588125: Rubygems 1.3.7 broken with Ruby 1.9.2 in Debian -- help needed

[Lucas Nussbaum]

Hi,

I am involved in the Debian Ruby team.

Currently, in Debian, we have rubygems1.8 and rubygems1.9.1 (1.9.1
being the compatibility version of Ruby, not the Ruby version itself)
for respectively ruby 1.8 and 1.9.2. Those packages are both built from
the rubygems 1.3.7 sources.
That means that Ruby 1.9.2 doesn't use the rubygems that is included in
its own version of the standard library, but the one shipped in Rubygems
1.3.7.

That worked fine until Ruby 1.9.1, but apparently a change in Ruby
1.9.2 broke Rubygems 1.3.7. This is exhibited by two bugs:
- the package now fails to build:
  http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=593045
- rubygems doesn't work:
  http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=588125

We would like to continue to package Rubygems that way, because it makes
support easier to have a single source package to update. Also, in the
past, we have been bitten by the fact that the rubygems from stdlib was
lagging behind and became incompatible with the one from the separate
tarball.

Could you please help us fix those issues with Ruby 1.9.2 in Rubygems
1.3.7? We basically have no idea where to start.
It's important to note that changes should be made in a way that doesn't
change the behaviour of Ruby 1.8, since the same source package is used
for it too.

Thank you,

- Lucas