[DRE-maint] Bug#597554: rubygems1.8: gem build on yaml files produces error "uninitialized constant Gem::Specification::YAML"

[Clint Byrum]

Package: rubygems1.8
Version: 1.3.7-2
Severity: normal
Tags: upstream


Hello! 

This was originally reported in Ubuntu here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libgems-ruby/+bug/643768

Upon trying to build a gem file from a raw yaml specfile,
gem build fails:

clint at debian:~/g$ gem build metadata 
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (NameError)
    uninitialized constant Gem::Specification::YAML

However, if a ~/.gemrc exists, no error is printed:

clint at debian:~/g$ touch ~/.gemrc
clint at debian:~/g$ gem build metadata 
WARNING:  no rubyforge_project specified
WARNING:  description and summary are identical
  Successfully built RubyGem
  Name: piggy
  Version: 0.0.6
  File: piggy-0.0.6.gem

rubygems/specification.rb should explicitly require "yaml"

This was not broken in rubygems 1.3.6, and in fact has been
reported on other OS's too:

http://mail-index.netbsd.org/pkgsrc-bugs/2010/09/13/msg039540.html

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-trunk-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages rubygems1.8 depends on:
ii  ruby1.8 [rdoc1.8]            1.8.7.299-2 Interpreter of object-oriented scr

rubygems1.8 recommends no packages.

Versions of packages rubygems1.8 suggests:
ii  build-essential              11.5        Informational list of build-essent
ii  ruby1.8-dev                  1.8.7.299-2 Header files for compiling extensi
pn  rubygems-doc                 <none>      (no description available)

-- no debconf information