AC::Head now doesn't have an unfulfilled Rendering dependency, and instead works just fine standalone (which means that ConditionalGet also doesn't have a Rendering dependency)

actionpack/lib/abstract_controller/base.rb

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ class ActionNotFound < StandardError; end
   class Base
     attr_internal :response_body
     attr_internal :action_name
+    attr_internal :formats
 
     class << self
       attr_reader :abstract

actionpack/lib/abstract_controller/rendering.rb

@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ module Rendering
     include AbstractController::Logger
 
     included do
-      attr_internal :formats
       extlib_inheritable_accessor :_view_paths
       self._view_paths ||= ActionView::PathSet.new
     end

actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb

@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ def _normalize_options(action = nil, options = {}, &blk)
       end
 
       if options[:status]
-        options[:status] = _interpret_status(options[:status])
+        options[:status] = ActionDispatch::StatusCodes[options[:status]]
       end
 
       options[:update] = blk if block_given?

actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal.rb

@@ -68,6 +68,10 @@ def location=(url)
       headers["Location"] = url
     end
 
+    def status=(status)
+      @_status = ActionDispatch::StatusCodes[status]
+    end
+
     # :api: private
     def dispatch(name, env)
       @_env = env
@@ -92,6 +96,7 @@ def self.for(controller, action, stack)
 
       def initialize(controller, action)
         @controller, @action = controller, action
+        @_formats = [Mime::HTML]
       end
 
       def call(env)

actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/head.rb

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 module ActionController
   module Head
+    include UrlFor
+
     # Return a response that has no content (merely headers). The options
     # argument is interpreted to be a hash of header names and values.
     # This allows you to easily return a response that consists only of
@@ -21,7 +23,10 @@ def head(status, options = {})
         headers[key.to_s.dasherize.split(/-/).map { |v| v.capitalize }.join("-")] = value.to_s
       end
 
-      render :nothing => true, :status => status, :location => location
+      self.status = status
+      self.location = url_for(location) if location
+      self.content_type = Mime[formats.first]
+      self.response_body = " "
     end
   end
 end

actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/redirecting.rb

@@ -62,9 +62,9 @@ def redirect_to(options = {}, response_status = {}) #:doc:
     private
       def _extract_redirect_to_status(options, response_status)
         status = if options.is_a?(Hash) && options.key?(:status)
-          _interpret_status(options.delete(:status))
+          ActionDispatch::StatusCodes[options.delete(:status)]
         elsif response_status.key?(:status)
-          _interpret_status(response_status[:status])
+          ActionDispatch::StatusCodes[response_status[:status]]
         else
           302
         end
@@ -86,13 +86,5 @@ def _compute_redirect_to_location(options)
           url_for(options)
         end.gsub(/[\r\n]/, '')
       end
-
-      def _interpret_status(status)
-        if status.is_a?(Symbol)
-          (ActionDispatch::StatusCodes::SYMBOL_TO_STATUS_CODE[status] || 500)
-        else
-          status.to_i
-        end
-      end
   end
 end

actionpack/lib/action_dispatch/http/response.rb

@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ def cache_control
     end
 
     def status=(status)
-      @status = status.to_i
+      @status = ActionDispatch::StatusCodes[status]
     end
 
     # The response code of the request

actionpack/lib/action_dispatch/http/status_codes.rb

@@ -14,6 +14,14 @@ module StatusCodes #:nodoc:
       510 => "Not Extended"
     }).freeze
 
+    def self.[](status)
+      if status.is_a?(Symbol)
+        SYMBOL_TO_STATUS_CODE[status] || 500
+      else
+        status.to_i
+      end
+    end
+
     # Provides a symbol-to-fixnum lookup for converting a symbol (like
     # :created or :not_implemented) into its corresponding HTTP status
     # code (like 200 or 501).