bug#2807: Subject: 23.0.90; etags can't access .el.gz files

in dir /usr/share/emacs/23.0.90/lisp
M-x shell:
bash-3.1$ etags ./*.el.gz

when true:
(equal tags-file-name "/usr/share/emacs/23.0.90/lisp/TAGS")

M-x tags-search
tags-search

I get this error:
`next-file: Opening input file: no such file or directory,
/usr/share/emacs/23.0.90/lisp/abbrev.el'

When all *.el.gz are uncompressed there isn't a problem :)
However if any of the .el files are *.el.gz i get the error.

Can tags open the (now) default .el.gz files in ~emacs/*/lisp/

Shouldn't emacs decompress these files automatically on the fly?
;;; ==============================
In GNU Emacs 23.0.90.2 (i486-slackware-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.12.12)
 of 2009-02-26 on slaptop
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10402000
configured using `configure  '--prefix=/usr' '--sysconfdir=/etc'
'--localstatedir=/var' '--program-prefix=' '--program-suffix='
'--mandir=/usr/man' '--infodir=/usr/info' '--enable-static=no'
'--enable-shared=yes' '--with-x' '--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
'--build=i486-slackware-linux' 'build_alias=i486-slackware-linux'
'CFLAGS=-O2 -march=i486 -mtune=i686''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: C
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_US
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: iso-latin-1-unix
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
  diff-auto-refine-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  display-time-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  global-auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  size-indication-mode: t
  column-number-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t