Okay, getting somewhere! I noticed that the "rdoc", "rdoc1.8" and "irb1.8" packages were installed on the broken system and were missing on the working system. Removing irb1.8 also removed the rdoc packages and got the broken system working again.
I then installed just irb1.8 on the previously working system and it continues to work. Finally I "broke" the previously working system by installing rdoc/rdoc1.8. So some strange interaction is going on between rdoc and puppet. I'm afraid my lack of Ruby skills keeps me from further debugging this. Thanks, -Brett. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]