diff --git a/lib/puppet/interface/face_collection.rb b/lib/puppet/interface/face_collection.rb
index 868997b67..b1f6ba398 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/interface/face_collection.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/interface/face_collection.rb
@@ -1,116 +1,128 @@
 require 'puppet/interface'
 
 module Puppet::Interface::FaceCollection
   @faces = Hash.new { |hash, key| hash[key] = {} }
 
   def self.faces
     unless @loaded
       @loaded = true
       $LOAD_PATH.each do |dir|
         Dir.glob("#{dir}/puppet/face/*.rb").
           collect {|f| File.basename(f, '.rb') }.
           each {|name| self[name, :current] }
       end
     end
     @faces.keys.select {|name| @faces[name].length > 0 }
   end
 
   def self.[](name, version)
     name = underscorize(name)
     get_face(name, version) or load_face(name, version)
   end
 
   def self.get_action_for_face(name, action_name, version)
     name = underscorize(name)
 
     # If the version they request specifically doesn't exist, don't search
     # elsewhere.  Usually this will start from :current and all...
     return nil unless face = self[name, version]
     unless action = face.get_action(action_name)
       # ...we need to search for it bound to an o{lder,ther} version.  Since
       # we load all actions when the face is first references, this will be in
       # memory in the known set of versions of the face.
       (@faces[name].keys - [ :current ]).sort.reverse.each do |version|
         break if action = @faces[name][version].get_action(action_name)
       end
     end
 
     return action
   end
 
   # get face from memory, without loading.
   def self.get_face(name, pattern)
     return nil unless @faces.has_key? name
     return @faces[name][:current] if pattern == :current
 
     versions = @faces[name].keys - [ :current ]
     found    = SemVer.find_matching(pattern, versions)
     return @faces[name][found]
   end
 
   # try to load the face, and return it.
   def self.load_face(name, version)
     # We always load the current version file; the common case is that we have
     # the expected version and any compatibility versions in the same file,
     # the default.  Which means that this is almost always the case.
     #
     # We use require to avoid executing the code multiple times, like any
     # other Ruby library that we might want to use.  --daniel 2011-04-06
-    begin
-      require "puppet/face/#{name}"
-
+    if safely_require name then
       # If we wanted :current, we need to index to find that; direct version
       # requests just work™ as they go. --daniel 2011-04-06
       if version == :current then
         # We need to find current out of this.  This is the largest version
         # number that doesn't have a dedicated on-disk file present; those
         # represent "experimental" versions of faces, which we don't fully
         # support yet.
         #
         # We walk the versions from highest to lowest and take the first version
         # that is not defined in an explicitly versioned file on disk as the
         # current version.
         #
         # This constrains us to only ship experimental versions with *one*
         # version in the file, not multiple, but given you can't reliably load
         # them except by side-effect when you ignore that rule this seems safe
         # enough...
         #
         # Given those constraints, and that we are not going to ship a versioned
         # interface that is not :current in this release, we are going to leave
         # these thoughts in place, and just punt on the actual versioning.
         #
         # When we upgrade the core to support multiple versions we can solve the
         # problems then; as lazy as possible.
         #
         # We do support multiple versions in the same file, though, so we sort
         # versions here and return the last item in that set.
         #
         # --daniel 2011-04-06
         latest_ver = @faces[name].keys.sort.last
         @faces[name][:current] = @faces[name][latest_ver]
       end
-    rescue LoadError => e
-      raise unless e.message =~ %r{-- puppet/face/#{name}$}
-      # ...guess we didn't find the file; return a much better problem.
-    rescue SyntaxError => e
-      raise unless e.message =~ %r{puppet/face/#{name}\.rb:\d+: }
-      Puppet.err "Failed to load face #{name}:\n#{e}"
-      # ...but we just carry on after complaining.
+    end
+
+    unless version == :current or get_face(name, version)
+      # Try an obsolete version of the face, if needed, to see if that helps?
+      safely_require name, version
     end
 
     return get_face(name, version)
   end
 
+  def self.safely_require(name, version = nil)
+    path = File.join 'puppet' ,'face', version.to_s, name.to_s
+    require path
+    true
+
+  rescue LoadError => e
+    raise unless e.message =~ %r{-- #{path}$}
+    # ...guess we didn't find the file; return a much better problem.
+    nil
+  rescue SyntaxError => e
+    raise unless e.message =~ %r{#{path}\.rb:\d+: }
+    Puppet.err "Failed to load face #{name}:\n#{e}"
+    # ...but we just carry on after complaining.
+    nil
+  end
+
   def self.register(face)
     @faces[underscorize(face.name)][face.version] = face
   end
 
   def self.underscorize(name)
     unless name.to_s =~ /^[-_a-z]+$/i then
       raise ArgumentError, "#{name.inspect} (#{name.class}) is not a valid face name"
     end
 
     name.to_s.downcase.split(/[-_]/).join('_').to_sym
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/lib/puppet/face/1.0.0/huzzah.rb b/spec/lib/puppet/face/1.0.0/huzzah.rb
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..00f20f096
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/lib/puppet/face/1.0.0/huzzah.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+require 'puppet/face'
+Puppet::Face.define(:huzzah, '1.0.0') do
+  copyright "Puppet Labs", 2011
+  license   "Apache 2 license; see COPYING"
+  summary "life is a thing for celebration"
+  script :obsolete_in_core do |_| "you are in obsolete core now!" end
+
+  script :call_newer do method_on_newer end
+end
diff --git a/spec/lib/puppet/face/huzzah.rb b/spec/lib/puppet/face/huzzah.rb
index ab465d9e0..47cc3f32c 100755
--- a/spec/lib/puppet/face/huzzah.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/puppet/face/huzzah.rb
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 require 'puppet/face'
 Puppet::Face.define(:huzzah, '2.0.1') do
   copyright "Puppet Labs", 2011
   license   "Apache 2 license; see COPYING"
   summary "life is a thing for celebration"
   script :bar do |options| "is where beer comes from" end
+
+  script :call_older do method_on_older end
 end
diff --git a/spec/unit/interface/face_collection_spec.rb b/spec/unit/interface/face_collection_spec.rb
index 8f9c349b6..514a624b1 100755
--- a/spec/unit/interface/face_collection_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/interface/face_collection_spec.rb
@@ -1,167 +1,190 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env rspec
 require 'spec_helper'
 
 require 'tmpdir'
 require 'puppet/interface/face_collection'
 
 describe Puppet::Interface::FaceCollection do
   # To avoid cross-pollution we have to save and restore both the hash
   # containing all the interface data, and the array used by require.  Restoring
   # both means that we don't leak side-effects across the code. --daniel 2011-04-06
   #
   # Worse luck, we *also* need to flush $" of anything defining a face,
   # because otherwise we can cross-pollute from other test files and end up
   # with no faces loaded, but the require value set true. --daniel 2011-04-10
   before :each do
     @original_faces    = subject.instance_variable_get("@faces").dup
     @original_required = $".dup
     $".delete_if do |path| path =~ %r{/face/.*\.rb$} end
     subject.instance_variable_get(:@faces).clear
     subject.instance_variable_set(:@loaded, false)
   end
 
   after :each do
     subject.instance_variable_set(:@faces, @original_faces)
     @original_required.each {|f| $".push f unless $".include? f }
   end
 
   describe "::[]" do
     before :each do
       subject.instance_variable_get("@faces")[:foo][SemVer.new('0.0.1')] = 10
     end
 
     it "should return the face with the given name" do
       subject["foo", '0.0.1'].should == 10
     end
 
     it "should attempt to load the face if it isn't found" do
-      subject.expects(:require).with('puppet/face/bar')
+      subject.expects(:require).once.with('puppet/face/bar')
+      subject.expects(:require).once.with('puppet/face/0.0.1/bar')
       subject["bar", '0.0.1']
     end
 
     it "should attempt to load the default face for the specified version :current" do
       subject.expects(:require).with('puppet/face/fozzie')
       subject['fozzie', :current]
     end
 
     it "should return true if the face specified is registered" do
       subject.instance_variable_get("@faces")[:foo][SemVer.new('0.0.1')] = 10
       subject["foo", '0.0.1'].should == 10
     end
 
     it "should attempt to require the face if it is not registered" do
       subject.expects(:require).with do |file|
         subject.instance_variable_get("@faces")[:bar][SemVer.new('0.0.1')] = true
         file == 'puppet/face/bar'
       end
       subject["bar", '0.0.1'].should be_true
     end
 
     it "should return false if the face is not registered" do
       subject.stubs(:require).returns(true)
       subject["bar", '0.0.1'].should be_false
     end
 
     it "should return false if the face file itself is missing" do
       subject.stubs(:require).
-        raises(LoadError, 'no such file to load -- puppet/face/bar')
+        raises(LoadError, 'no such file to load -- puppet/face/bar').then.
+        raises(LoadError, 'no such file to load -- puppet/face/0.0.1/bar')
       subject["bar", '0.0.1'].should be_false
     end
 
     it "should register the version loaded by `:current` as `:current`" do
       subject.expects(:require).with do |file|
         subject.instance_variable_get("@faces")[:huzzah]['2.0.1'] = :huzzah_face
         file == 'puppet/face/huzzah'
       end
       subject["huzzah", :current]
       subject.instance_variable_get("@faces")[:huzzah][:current].should == :huzzah_face
     end
 
     context "with something on disk" do
       it "should register the version loaded from `puppet/face/{name}` as `:current`" do
         subject["huzzah", '2.0.1'].should be
         subject["huzzah", :current].should be
         Puppet::Face[:huzzah, '2.0.1'].should == Puppet::Face[:huzzah, :current]
       end
 
       it "should index :current when the code was pre-required" do
         subject.instance_variable_get("@faces")[:huzzah].should_not be_key :current
         require 'puppet/face/huzzah'
         subject[:huzzah, :current].should be_true
       end
     end
 
     it "should not cause an invalid face to be enumerated later" do
       subject[:there_is_no_face, :current].should be_false
       subject.faces.should_not include :there_is_no_face
     end
   end
 
   describe "::get_action_for_face" do
     it "should return an action on the current face" do
       Puppet::Face::FaceCollection.get_action_for_face(:huzzah, :bar, :current).
         should be_an_instance_of Puppet::Interface::Action
     end
 
     it "should return an action on an older version of a face" do
       action = Puppet::Face::FaceCollection.
         get_action_for_face(:huzzah, :obsolete, :current)
 
       action.should be_an_instance_of Puppet::Interface::Action
       action.face.version.should == SemVer.new('1.0.0')
     end
+
+    it "should load the full older version of a face" do
+      action = Puppet::Face::FaceCollection.
+        get_action_for_face(:huzzah, :obsolete, :current)
+
+      action.face.version.should == SemVer.new('1.0.0')
+      action.face.should be_action :obsolete_in_core
+    end
+
+    it "should not add obsolete actions to the current version" do
+      action = Puppet::Face::FaceCollection.
+        get_action_for_face(:huzzah, :obsolete, :current)
+
+      action.face.version.should == SemVer.new('1.0.0')
+      action.face.should be_action :obsolete_in_core
+
+      current = Puppet::Face[:huzzah, :current]
+      current.version.should == SemVer.new('2.0.1')
+      current.should_not be_action :obsolete_in_core
+      current.should_not be_action :obsolete
+    end
   end
 
   describe "::register" do
     it "should store the face by name" do
       face = Puppet::Face.new(:my_face, '0.0.1')
       subject.register(face)
       subject.instance_variable_get("@faces").should == {
         :my_face => { face.version => face }
       }
     end
   end
 
   describe "::underscorize" do
     faulty = [1, "#foo", "$bar", "sturm und drang", :"sturm und drang"]
     valid  = {
       "Foo"      => :foo,
       :Foo       => :foo,
       "foo_bar"  => :foo_bar,
       :foo_bar   => :foo_bar,
       "foo-bar"  => :foo_bar,
       :"foo-bar" => :foo_bar,
     }
 
     valid.each do |input, expect|
       it "should map #{input.inspect} to #{expect.inspect}" do
         result = subject.underscorize(input)
         result.should == expect
       end
     end
 
     faulty.each do |input|
       it "should fail when presented with #{input.inspect} (#{input.class})" do
         expect { subject.underscorize(input) }.
           should raise_error ArgumentError, /not a valid face name/
       end
     end
   end
 
   context "faulty faces" do
     before :each do
       $:.unshift "#{PuppetSpec::FIXTURE_DIR}/faulty_face"
     end
 
     after :each do
       $:.delete_if {|x| x == "#{PuppetSpec::FIXTURE_DIR}/faulty_face"}
     end
 
     it "should not die if a face has a syntax error" do
       subject.faces.should be_include :help
       subject.faces.should_not be_include :syntax
       @logs.should_not be_empty
       @logs.first.message.should =~ /syntax error/
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/unit/interface_spec.rb b/spec/unit/interface_spec.rb
index 4cb1f8743..4ff71ac3d 100755
--- a/spec/unit/interface_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/interface_spec.rb
@@ -1,236 +1,233 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 require 'puppet/face'
 require 'puppet/interface'
 
 describe Puppet::Interface do
   subject { Puppet::Interface }
 
   before :each do
     @faces = Puppet::Interface::FaceCollection.
       instance_variable_get("@faces").dup
     @dq = $".dup
     $".delete_if do |path| path =~ %r{/face/.*\.rb$} end
     Puppet::Interface::FaceCollection.instance_variable_get("@faces").clear
   end
 
   after :each do
     Puppet::Interface::FaceCollection.instance_variable_set("@faces", @faces)
     $".clear ; @dq.each do |item| $" << item end
   end
 
   describe "#[]" do
     it "should fail when no version is requested" do
       expect { subject[:huzzah] }.should raise_error ArgumentError
     end
 
     it "should raise an exception when the requested version is unavailable" do
       expect { subject[:huzzah, '17.0.0'] }.should raise_error, Puppet::Error
     end
 
     it "should raise an exception when the requested face doesn't exist" do
       expect { subject[:burrble_toot, :current] }.should raise_error, Puppet::Error
     end
 
     describe "version matching" do
       { '1'     => '1.1.1',
         '1.0'   => '1.0.1',
         '1.0.1' => '1.0.1',
         '1.1'   => '1.1.1',
         '1.1.1' => '1.1.1'
       }.each do |input, expect|
         it "should match #{input.inspect} to #{expect.inspect}" do
           face = subject[:version_matching, input]
           face.should be
           face.version.should == expect
         end
       end
 
       %w{1.0.2 1.2}.each do |input|
         it "should not match #{input.inspect} to any version" do
           expect { subject[:version_matching, input] }.
             to raise_error Puppet::Error, /Could not find version/
         end
       end
     end
   end
 
   describe "#define" do
     it "should register the face" do
       face  = subject.define(:face_test_register, '0.0.1')
       face.should == subject[:face_test_register, '0.0.1']
     end
 
     it "should load actions" do
       subject.any_instance.expects(:load_actions)
       subject.define(:face_test_load_actions, '0.0.1')
     end
 
     it "should require a version number" do
       expect { subject.define(:no_version) }.to raise_error ArgumentError
     end
 
     it "should support summary builder and accessor methods" do
       subject.new(:foo, '1.0.0').should respond_to(:summary).with(0).arguments
       subject.new(:foo, '1.0.0').should respond_to(:summary=).with(1).arguments
     end
 
     # Required documentation methods...
     { :summary     => "summary",
       :description => "This is the description of the stuff\n\nWhee",
       :examples    => "This is my example",
       :short_description => "This is my custom short description",
       :notes       => "These are my notes...",
       :author      => "This is my authorship data",
     }.each do |attr, value|
       it "should support #{attr} in the builder" do
         face = subject.new(:builder, '1.0.0') do
           self.send(attr, value)
         end
         face.send(attr).should == value
       end
     end
   end
 
   describe "#initialize" do
     it "should require a version number" do
       expect { subject.new(:no_version) }.to raise_error ArgumentError
     end
 
     it "should require a valid version number" do
       expect { subject.new(:bad_version, 'Rasins') }.
         should raise_error ArgumentError
     end
 
     it "should instance-eval any provided block", :'fails_on_ruby_1.9.2' => true do
       face = subject.new(:face_test_block, '0.0.1') do
         action(:something) do
           when_invoked { "foo" }
         end
       end
 
       face.something.should == "foo"
     end
   end
 
   it "should have a name" do
     subject.new(:me, '0.0.1').name.should == :me
   end
 
   it "should stringify with its own name" do
     subject.new(:me, '0.0.1').to_s.should =~ /\bme\b/
   end
 
   # Why?
   it "should create a class-level autoloader" do
     subject.autoloader.should be_instance_of(Puppet::Util::Autoload)
   end
 
   it "should try to require faces that are not known" do
-    pending "mocking require causes random stack overflow"
-    subject::FaceCollection.expects(:require).with "puppet/face/foo"
-    subject[:foo, '0.0.1']
+    subject::FaceCollection.expects(:load_face).with(:foo, :current)
+    subject::FaceCollection.expects(:load_face).with(:foo, '0.0.1')
+    expect { subject[:foo, '0.0.1'] }.to raise_error Puppet::Error
   end
 
-  it "should be able to load all actions in all search paths"
-
-
   it_should_behave_like "things that declare options" do
     def add_options_to(&block)
       subject.new(:with_options, '0.0.1', &block)
     end
   end
 
   describe "with face-level options", :'fails_on_ruby_1.9.2' => true do
     it "should not return any action-level options" do
       face = subject.new(:with_options, '0.0.1') do
         option "--foo"
         option "--bar"
         action :baz do
           when_invoked { true }
           option "--quux"
         end
       end
       face.options.should =~ [:foo, :bar]
     end
 
     it "should fail when a face option duplicates an action option" do
       expect {
         subject.new(:action_level_options, '0.0.1') do
           action :bar do
             when_invoked { true }
             option "--foo"
           end
           option "--foo"
         end
       }.should raise_error ArgumentError, /Option foo conflicts with existing option foo on/i
     end
 
     it "should work when two actions have the same option" do
       face = subject.new(:with_options, '0.0.1') do
         action :foo do when_invoked { true } ; option "--quux" end
         action :bar do when_invoked { true } ; option "--quux" end
       end
 
       face.get_action(:foo).options.should =~ [:quux]
       face.get_action(:bar).options.should =~ [:quux]
     end
 
     it "should only list options and not aliases" do
       face = subject.new(:face_options, '0.0.1') do
         option "--bar", "-b", "--foo-bar"
       end
       face.options.should =~ [:bar]
     end
 
   end
 
   describe "with inherited options" do
     let :parent do
       parent = Class.new(subject)
       parent.option("--inherited")
       parent.action(:parent_action) do when_invoked { true } end
       parent
     end
 
     let :face do
       face = parent.new(:example, '0.2.1')
       face.option("--local")
       face.action(:face_action) do when_invoked { true } end
       face
     end
 
     describe "#options", :'fails_on_ruby_1.9.2' => true do
       it "should list inherited options" do
         face.options.should =~ [:inherited, :local]
       end
 
       it "should see all options on face actions" do
         face.get_action(:face_action).options.should =~ [:inherited, :local]
       end
 
       it "should see all options on inherited actions accessed on the subclass" do
         face.get_action(:parent_action).options.should =~ [:inherited, :local]
       end
 
       it "should not see subclass actions on the parent class" do
         parent.options.should =~ [:inherited]
       end
 
       it "should not see subclass actions on actions accessed on the parent class" do
         parent.get_action(:parent_action).options.should =~ [:inherited]
       end
     end
 
     describe "#get_option", :'fails_on_ruby_1.9.2' => true do
       it "should return an inherited option object" do
         face.get_option(:inherited).should be_an_instance_of subject::Option
       end
     end
   end
 
   it_should_behave_like "documentation on faces" do
     subject do
       Puppet::Interface.new(:face_documentation, '0.0.1')
     end
   end
 end