http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-core/6131 The above fix seems to still be needed in ruby-1.8.4, to fix the following problem: irb(main):005:0> t = Time.now.to_i => 1137525209 irb(main):006:0> y t --- !ruby/object:Bignum 1137525209 => nil irb(main):007:0> t.to_yaml => "--- !ruby/object:Bignum 1137525209\n" irb(main):008:0> YAML.load(t.to_yaml) TypeError: allocator undefined for Bignum from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/yaml.rb:133:in `transfer' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/yaml.rb:133:in `load' from (irb):8 -- vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407