diff --git a/lib/puppet/util/monkey_patches.rb b/lib/puppet/util/monkey_patches.rb
index 93d266f8f..952aa2790 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/util/monkey_patches.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/util/monkey_patches.rb
@@ -1,224 +1,230 @@
 require 'puppet/util'
 module Puppet::Util::MonkeyPatches
 end
 
 unless defined? JRUBY_VERSION
   Process.maxgroups = 1024
 end
 
 module RDoc
   def self.caller(skip=nil)
     in_gem_wrapper = false
     Kernel.caller.reject { |call|
       in_gem_wrapper ||= call =~ /#{Regexp.escape $0}:\d+:in `load'/
     }
   end
 end
 
 
 require "yaml"
 require "puppet/util/zaml.rb"
 
 class Symbol
   def to_zaml(z)
     z.emit("!ruby/sym ")
     to_s.to_zaml(z)
   end
   def <=> (other)
     self.to_s <=> other.to_s
   end unless method_defined? "<=>"
 end
 
 [Object, Exception, Integer, Struct, Date, Time, Range, Regexp, Hash, Array, Float, String, FalseClass, TrueClass, Symbol, NilClass, Class].each { |cls|
   cls.class_eval do
     def to_yaml(ignored=nil)
       ZAML.dump(self)
     end
   end
 }
 
 def YAML.dump(*args)
   ZAML.dump(*args)
 end
 
 #
 # Workaround for bug in MRI 1.8.7, see
 #     http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/show/2708
 # for details
 #
 if RUBY_VERSION == '1.8.7'
   class NilClass
     def closed?
       true
     end
   end
 end
 
 class Object
   # ActiveSupport 2.3.x mixes in a dangerous method
   # that can cause rspec to fork bomb
   # and other strange things like that.
   def daemonize
     raise NotImplementedError, "Kernel.daemonize is too dangerous, please don't try to use it."
   end
 end
 
 # Workaround for yaml_initialize, which isn't supported before Ruby
 # 1.8.3.
 if RUBY_VERSION == '1.8.1' || RUBY_VERSION == '1.8.2'
   YAML.add_ruby_type( /^object/ ) { |tag, val|
     type, obj_class = YAML.read_type_class( tag, Object )
     r = YAML.object_maker( obj_class, val )
     if r.respond_to? :yaml_initialize
       r.instance_eval { instance_variables.each { |name| remove_instance_variable name } }
       r.yaml_initialize(tag, val)
     end
     r
   }
 end
 
 class Array
   # Ruby < 1.8.7 doesn't have this method but we use it in tests
   def combination(num)
     return [] if num < 0 || num > size
     return [[]] if num == 0
     return map{|e| [e] } if num == 1
     tmp = self.dup
     self[0, size - (num - 1)].inject([]) do |ret, e|
       tmp.shift
       ret += tmp.combination(num - 1).map{|a| a.unshift(e) }
     end
   end unless method_defined? :combination
 
   alias :count :length unless method_defined? :count
 end
 
 
 class Symbol
   def to_proc
     Proc.new { |*args| args.shift.__send__(self, *args) }
   end unless method_defined? :to_proc
+
+  # Defined in 1.9, absent in 1.8, and used for compatibility in various
+  # places, typically in third party gems.
+  def intern
+    return self
+  end unless method_defined? :intern
 end
 
 class String
   unless method_defined? :lines
     require 'puppet/util/monkey_patches/lines'
     include Puppet::Util::MonkeyPatches::Lines
   end
 end
 
 require 'fcntl'
 class IO
   unless method_defined? :lines
     require 'puppet/util/monkey_patches/lines'
     include Puppet::Util::MonkeyPatches::Lines
   end
 
   def self.binread(name, length = nil, offset = 0)
     File.open(name, 'rb') do |f|
       f.seek(offset) if offset > 0
       f.read(length)
     end
   end unless singleton_methods.include?(:binread)
 
   def self.binwrite(name, string, offset = nil)
     # Determine if we should truncate or not.  Since the truncate method on a
     # file handle isn't implemented on all platforms, safer to do this in what
     # looks like the libc interface - which is usually pretty robust.
     # --daniel 2012-03-11
     mode = Fcntl::O_CREAT | Fcntl::O_WRONLY | (offset.nil? ? Fcntl::O_TRUNC : 0)
     IO.open(IO::sysopen(name, mode)) do |f|
       # ...seek to our desired offset, then write the bytes.  Don't try to
       # seek past the start of the file, eh, because who knows what platform
       # would legitimately blow up if we did that.
       #
       # Double-check the positioning, too, since destroying data isn't my idea
       # of a good time. --daniel 2012-03-11
       target = [0, offset.to_i].max
       unless (landed = f.sysseek(target, IO::SEEK_SET)) == target
         raise "unable to seek to target offset #{target} in #{name}: got to #{landed}"
       end
 
       f.syswrite(string)
     end
   end unless singleton_methods.include?(:binwrite)
 end
 
 class Range
   def intersection(other)
     raise ArgumentError, 'value must be a Range' unless other.kind_of?(Range)
     return unless other === self.first || self === other.first
 
     start = [self.first, other.first].max
     if self.exclude_end? && self.last <= other.last
       start ... self.last
     elsif other.exclude_end? && self.last >= other.last
       start ... other.last
     else
       start .. [ self.last, other.last ].min
     end
   end unless method_defined? :intersection
 
   alias_method :&, :intersection unless method_defined? :&
 end
 
 # Ruby 1.8.5 doesn't have tap
 module Kernel
   def tap
     yield(self)
     self
   end unless method_defined?(:tap)
 end
 
 
 ########################################################################
 # The return type of `instance_variables` changes between Ruby 1.8 and 1.9
 # releases; it used to return an array of strings in the form "@foo", but
 # now returns an array of symbols in the form :@foo.
 #
 # Nothing else in the stack cares which form you get - you can pass the
 # string or symbol to things like `instance_variable_set` and they will work
 # transparently.
 #
 # Having the same form in all releases of Puppet is a win, though, so we
 # pick a unification and enforce than on all releases.  That way developers
 # who do set math on them (eg: for YAML rendering) don't have to handle the
 # distinction themselves.
 #
 # In the sane tradition, we bring older releases into conformance with newer
 # releases, so we return symbols rather than strings, to be more like the
 # future versions of Ruby are.
 #
 # We also carefully support reloading, by only wrapping when we don't
 # already have the original version of the method aliased away somewhere.
 if RUBY_VERSION[0,3] == '1.8'
   unless Object.respond_to?(:puppet_original_instance_variables)
 
     # Add our wrapper to the method.
     class Object
       alias :puppet_original_instance_variables :instance_variables
 
       def instance_variables
         puppet_original_instance_variables.map(&:to_sym)
       end
     end
 
     # The one place that Ruby 1.8 assumes something about the return format of
     # the `instance_variables` method is actually kind of odd, because it uses
     # eval to get at instance variables of another object.
     #
     # This takes the original code and applies replaces instance_eval with
     # instance_variable_get through it.  All other bugs in the original (such
     # as equality depending on the instance variables having the same order
     # without any promise from the runtime) are preserved. --daniel 2012-03-11
     require 'resolv'
     class Resolv::DNS::Resource
       def ==(other) # :nodoc:
         return self.class == other.class &&
           self.instance_variables == other.instance_variables &&
           self.instance_variables.collect {|name| self.instance_variable_get name} ==
           other.instance_variables.collect {|name| other.instance_variable_get name}
       end
     end
   end
 end