diff --git a/lib/rubygems/commands/unpack_command.rb b/lib/rubygems/commands/unpack_command.rb
index 938db701e5..317fd44251 100644
--- a/lib/rubygems/commands/unpack_command.rb
+++ b/lib/rubygems/commands/unpack_command.rb
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ command help for an example.
       end
 
       if @options[:spec]
-        spec, metadata = get_metadata path, security_policy
+        spec, metadata = Gem::Package.metadata(path, security_policy)
 
         if metadata.nil?
           alert_error "--spec is unsupported on '#{name}' (old format gem)"
@@ -173,32 +173,4 @@ command help for an example.
 
     path
   end
-
-  ##
-  # Extracts the Gem::Specification and raw metadata from the .gem file at
-  # +path+.
-  #--
-  # TODO move to Gem::Package as #raw_spec or something
-
-  def get_metadata(path, security_policy = nil)
-    format = Gem::Package.new path, security_policy
-    spec = format.spec
-
-    metadata = nil
-
-    File.open path, Gem.binary_mode do |io|
-      tar = Gem::Package::TarReader.new io
-      tar.each_entry do |entry|
-        case entry.full_name
-        when 'metadata' then
-          metadata = entry.read
-        when 'metadata.gz' then
-          metadata = Gem::Util.gunzip entry.read
-        end
-      end
-    end
-
-    return spec, metadata
-  end
-
 end
diff --git a/lib/rubygems/package.rb b/lib/rubygems/package.rb
index de811bf4e4..b667196bfc 100644
--- a/lib/rubygems/package.rb
+++ b/lib/rubygems/package.rb
@@ -156,6 +156,32 @@ class Gem::Package
     Gem::Package::Old.new gem
   end
 
+  ##
+  # Extracts the Gem::Specification and raw metadata from the .gem file at
+  # +path+.
+  #--
+
+  def self.metadata(path, security_policy = nil)
+    format = new(path, security_policy)
+    spec = format.spec
+
+    metadata = nil
+
+    File.open path, Gem.binary_mode do |io|
+      tar = Gem::Package::TarReader.new io
+      tar.each_entry do |entry|
+        case entry.full_name
+        when 'metadata' then
+          metadata = entry.read
+        when 'metadata.gz' then
+          metadata = Gem::Util.gunzip entry.read
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
+    return spec, metadata
+  end
+
   ##
   # Creates a new package that will read or write to the file +gem+.
 
@@ -690,7 +716,6 @@ EOM
   rescue Zlib::GzipFile::Error => e
     raise Gem::Package::FormatError.new(e.message, entry.full_name)
   end
-
 end
 
 require 'rubygems/package/digest_io'
diff --git a/test/rubygems/test_gem_package.rb b/test/rubygems/test_gem_package.rb
index cedd2f5e55..c7b3cb3e20 100644
--- a/test/rubygems/test_gem_package.rb
+++ b/test/rubygems/test_gem_package.rb
@@ -420,6 +420,33 @@ class TestGemPackage < Gem::Package::TarTestCase
     assert_equal %w[lib/code.rb], reader.contents
   end
 
+  def test_metadata
+    data_tgz = util_tar_gz { }
+
+    gem = util_tar do |tar|
+      tar.add_file 'data.tar.gz', 0644 do |io|
+        io.write data_tgz.string
+      end
+
+      tar.add_file 'metadata.gz', 0644 do |io|
+        Zlib::GzipWriter.wrap io do |gzio|
+          gzio.write @spec.to_yaml
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
+    gem_path = "#{@destination}/test.gem"
+
+    File.open gem_path, "wb" do |io|
+      io.write gem.string
+    end
+
+    spec, metadata = Gem::Package.metadata(gem_path)
+
+    assert_equal @spec, spec
+    assert_match @spec.to_yaml, metadata.force_encoding("UTF-8")
+  end
+
   def test_contents
     package = Gem::Package.new @gem