diff --git a/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb b/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb
index c284433d1..2eb2869a4 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb
@@ -1,66 +1,93 @@
 require 'puppet/faces'
 require 'puppet/util/command_line'
 
 Puppet::Faces.define(:help, '0.0.1') do
   HelpSummaryFormat = '  %-18s  %s'
 
   summary "Displays help about puppet subcommands"
 
   action(:help) do
     option "--version VERSION" do
       desc "Which version of the interface to show help for"
     end
 
     when_invoked do |*args|
       # Check our invocation, because we want varargs and can't do defaults
       # yet.  REVISIT: when we do option defaults, and positional options, we
       # should rewrite this to use those. --daniel 2011-04-04
       options = args.pop
       if options.nil? or args.length > 2 then
         raise ArgumentError, "help only takes two (optional) arguments, a face name, and an action"
       end
 
       if options[:version] and options[:version] !~ /^current$/i then
         version = options[:version]
       else
         version = :current
       end
 
       message = []
       if args.length == 0 then
         message << "Use: puppet [options] <subcommand> <action>"
         message << ""
         message << "Available subcommands, from Puppet Faces:"
         Puppet::Faces.faces.sort.each do |name|
           face = Puppet::Faces[name, :current]
           message << format(HelpSummaryFormat, face.name, face.summary)
         end
 
-        legacy = Puppet::Util::CommandLine.available_subcommands.reject do |appname|
-          Puppet::Faces.face? appname.to_sym, :current
-        end
-        unless legacy.empty? then # great victory when this is true!
+        unless legacy_applications.empty? then # great victory when this is true!
           message << ""
           message << "Available applications, soon to be ported to Faces:"
-          legacy.sort.each do |appname|
-            message << format(HelpSummaryFormat, appname, 'REVISIT: how to summarize these?')
+          legacy_applications.each do |appname|
+            summary = horribly_extract_summary_from appname
+            message << format(HelpSummaryFormat, appname, summary)
           end
         end
       else
         face = Puppet::Faces[args[0].to_sym, version]
         if args[1] then
           action = face.get_action args[1].to_sym
         else
           action = nil
         end
 
         help = []
         face.actions.each do |action|
           help << "Action: #{action}"
         end
       end
 
       message
     end
   end
+
+  def legacy_applications
+    # The list of applications, less those that are duplicated as a face.
+    Puppet::Util::CommandLine.available_subcommands.reject do |appname|
+      Puppet::Faces.face? appname.to_sym, :current or
+        # ...this is a nasty way to exclude non-applications. :(
+        %w{faces_base indirection_base}.include? appname
+    end.sort
+  end
+
+  def horribly_extract_summary_from(appname)
+    begin
+      require "puppet/application/#{appname}"
+      help = Puppet::Application[appname].help.split("\n")
+      # Now we find the line with our summary, extract it, and return it.  This
+      # depends on the implementation coincidence of how our pages are
+      # formatted.  If we can't match the pattern we expect we return the empty
+      # string to ensure we don't blow up in the summary. --daniel 2011-04-11
+      while line = help.shift do
+        if md = /^puppet-#{appname}\([^\)]+\) -- (.*)$/.match(line) then
+          return md[1]
+        end
+      end
+    rescue Exception
+      # Damn, but I hate this: we just ignore errors here, no matter what
+      # class they are.  Meh.
+    end
+    return ''
+  end
 end
diff --git a/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb b/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb
index 87ff67948..1399abfef 100644
--- a/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb
@@ -1,69 +1,103 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 require 'puppet/faces/help'
 
 describe Puppet::Faces[:help, '0.0.1'] do
   it "should have a help action" do
     subject.should be_action :help
   end
 
   it "should have a default action of help" do
     pending "REVISIT: we don't support default actions yet"
   end
 
   it "should accept a call with no arguments" do
     expect { subject.help() }.should_not raise_error
   end
 
   it "should accept a face name" do
     expect { subject.help(:help) }.should_not raise_error
   end
 
   it "should accept a face and action name" do
     expect { subject.help(:help, :help) }.should_not raise_error
   end
 
   it "should fail if more than a face and action are given" do
     expect { subject.help(:help, :help, :for_the_love_of_god) }.
       should raise_error ArgumentError
   end
 
   it "should treat :current and 'current' identically" do
     subject.help(:help, :current).should ==
       subject.help(:help, 'current')
   end
 
   it "should complain when the request version of a face is missing" do
     expect { subject.help(:huzzah, :bar, :version => '17.0.0') }.
       should raise_error Puppet::Error
   end
 
   it "should find a face by version" do
     face = Puppet::Faces[:huzzah, :current]
     subject.help(:huzzah, face.version).should == subject.help(:huzzah, :current)
   end
 
   context "when listing subcommands" do
     subject { Puppet::Faces[:help, :current].help }
 
     # Check a precondition for the next block; if this fails you have
     # something odd in your set of faces, and we skip testing things that
     # matter. --daniel 2011-04-10
     it "should have at least one face with a summary" do
       Puppet::Faces.faces.should be_any do |name|
         Puppet::Faces[name, :current].summary
       end
     end
 
     Puppet::Faces.faces.each do |name|
       face = Puppet::Faces[name, :current]
       summary = face.summary
 
       it { should have_matching_element %r{ #{name} } }
       it { should have_matching_element %r{ #{name} +#{summary}} } if summary
     end
 
     Puppet::Util::CommandLine.available_subcommands do |name|
       it { should have_matching_element %r{ #{name} } }
     end
   end
+
+  context "when listing legacy applications" do
+    let :help do Puppet::Faces[:help, :current] end
+
+    # If we don't, these tests are ... less than useful, because they assume
+    # it.  When this breaks you should consider ditching the entire feature
+    # and tests, but if not work out how to fake one. --daniel 2011-04-11
+    it "should have at least one legacy application" do
+      help.legacy_applications.should have_at_least(1).item
+    end
+
+    # Meh.  This is nasty, but we can't control the other list; the specific
+    # bug that caused these to be listed is annoyingly subtle and has a nasty
+    # fix, so better to have a "fail if you do something daft" trigger in
+    # place here, I think. --daniel 2011-04-11
+    %w{faces_base indirection_base}.each do |name|
+      it "should not list the #{name} application" do
+        help.legacy_applications.should_not include name
+      end
+    end
+
+    Puppet::Faces[:help, :current].legacy_applications.each do |appname|
+      it "should list #{appname} in the help output" do
+        help.help.should have_matching_element %r{ #{appname} }
+      end
+
+      summary = Puppet::Faces[:help, :current].horribly_extract_summary_from(appname)
+      if summary then
+        it "should display the summary of #{appname}" do
+          help.help.should have_matching_element %r{ #{summary}\b}
+        end
+      end
+    end
+  end
 end