What to do when Net-SSH complains about exec! method missing? - ruby

Question

This is driving me crazy. I run into this every now and then on a new ubuntu/debian server.
Basically I can't do a exec! through net-ssh. Note, that I can require 'net/ssh' perfectly fine.
sample code
require 'rubygems'
require 'net/ssh'
Net::SSH.start('my.random.box', 'myuser', :forward_agent => "true") do |ssh|
#output = ssh.exec("hostname")
#puts output
output = ssh.exec!("hostname")
puts stdout
end
relevant system environment info
me#box:~$ gem list | grep net-ssh
net-ssh (2.0.11)
me#box:~$ which ruby
/usr/bin/ruby
me#box:~$ which gem
/usr/bin/gem
cyn0n#spicetrader:~$ gem environment
RubyGems Environment:
- RUBYGEMS VERSION: 1.3.4
- RUBY VERSION: 1.8.7 (2008-08-11 patchlevel 72) [i486-linux]
- INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8
- RUBY EXECUTABLE: /usr/bin/ruby1.8
- EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /usr/bin
- RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
- ruby
- x86-linux
- GEM PATHS:
- /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8
- /home/me/.gem/ruby/1.8
- GEM CONFIGURATION:
- :update_sources => true
- :verbose => true
- :benchmark => false
- :backtrace => false
- :bulk_threshold => 1000
- :sources => ["http://gems.rubyforge.org/", "http://gems.github.com"]
- REMOTE SOURCES:
- http://gems.rubyforge.org/
- http://gems.github.com

Answer 1

A couple of things to try:
Verify that the exec! method is in the source.
Check both gem repositories to make sure there isn't an older net-ssh version in there. gem list has some oddities; it's more straightforward to just go into the directories and see what's there.
require the current version in your script.
require 'rubygems'
gem 'net-ssh', '=2.0.11'
require 'net-ssh'