diff --git a/lib/puppet/settings.rb b/lib/puppet/settings.rb
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/settings.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/settings.rb
@@ -498,20 +498,6 @@ class Puppet::Settings
     mode
   end
 
-  # Return all of the settings associated with a given section.
-  def params(section = nil)
-    if section
-      section = section.intern if section.is_a? String
-      @config.find_all { |name, obj|
-        obj.section == section
-      }.collect { |name, obj|
-        name
-      }
-    else
-      @config.keys
-    end
-  end
-
   def parse_config(text, file = "text")
     begin
       data = @config_file_parser.parse_file(file, text, ALLOWED_SECTION_NAMES)
diff --git a/spec/unit/settings_spec.rb b/spec/unit/settings_spec.rb
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100755
--- a/spec/unit/settings_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/settings_spec.rb
@@ -35,8 +35,10 @@ describe Puppet::Settings do
       @settings = Puppet::Settings.new
     end
 
-    it "should start with no defined parameters" do
-      @settings.params.length.should == 0
+    it "should start with no defined sections or parameters" do
+      # Note this relies on undocumented side effect that eachsection returns the Settings internal
+      # configuration on which keys returns all parameters.
+      @settings.eachsection.keys.length.should == 0
     end
 
     it "should not allow specification of default values associated with a section as an array" do
(PUP-<I>) Remove Settings.params(section=nil) method

This method was only used to assert that a newly created Settings
object had no parameters. The test is now modified to obtain this
information through other means.