diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/gems.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/gems.nix
index 733beaa534f..bf37fdeb70d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/gems.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/gems.nix
@@ -6,9 +6,6 @@
 #
 # use rubyLibs.importGems to call the local file, which has access to all
 # the stuff in here
-#
-# gems here are either super common (rspec) or require patches to work
-# properly (libv8)
 
 { ruby, callPackage, pkgs }:
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/patches.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/patches.nix
index cff21c900f5..763c61fa55b 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/patches.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/patches.nix
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+# build-time overrides for some gems
+#
+# gems in here generally involve native extensions; there's no way to tell
+# based on the gemfile
+
 { fetchurl, writeScript, ruby, ncurses, sqlite, libxml2, libxslt, libffi
 , zlib, libuuid, gems, jdk, python, stdenv, libiconvOrEmpty, imagemagick
 , gnumake, pkgconfig, which, postgresql, v8_3_16_14, clang }: