--- a/scripts/ChangeLog
+++ b/scripts/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+2010-06-07  Jaroslav Hajek  <highegg@gmail.com>
+
+	* pkg/get_forge_pkg.m: New function.
+	* pkg/module.mk: Add it here.
+	* pkg/pkg.m: Support -forge switch for auto-downloading OctaveForge
+	packages.
+
 2010-06-03  Alois Schlögl
 
         * signal/arch_test.m, statistics/tests/bartlett_test.m, 

new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/pkg/get_forge_pkg.m
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2010 VZLU Prague, a.s.
+##
+## This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+## it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
+## (at your option) any later version.
+##
+## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+## but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+## GNU General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with this program; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn{Function File} {[@var{ver}, @var{url}] =} get_forge_pkg (@var{name})
+## Tries to discover the current version of an OctaveForge package from the web,
+## using a working internet connection and the urlread function.
+## If two output arguments are requested, returns also an address to download the file.
+## @end deftypefn
+
+function [ver, url] = get_forge_pkg (name)
+  if (nargin != 1)
+    print_usage ();
+  endif
+  ## Verify that name is valid.
+  if (! (ischar (name) && rows (name) == 1 && ndims (name) == 2))
+    error ("get_forge_pkg: package name must be a string");
+  elseif (! all (isalnum (name) | name == "-" | name == "."))
+    error ("get_forge_pkg: invalid package name: %s", name);
+  endif
+
+  name = tolower (name);
+
+  ## Try to download package's index page.
+  [html, succ] = urlread (sprintf ("http://octave.sourceforge.net/%s/index.html", name));
+  if (succ)
+    ## Remove blanks for simpler matching.
+    html(isspace(html)) = [];
+    ## Good. Let's grep for the version.
+    pat = "<tdclass=""package_table"">PackageVersion:</td><td>([0-9\\.]*)</td>";
+    [~, ~, ~, ~, t] = regexp (html, pat);
+    if (isempty (t) || isempty(t{1}))
+      error ("get_forge_pkg: could not read version number from package's page.");
+    else
+      ver = t{1}{1};
+      if (nargout > 1)
+        # Build download string.
+        urlbase = "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/octave/%s-%s.tar.gz?download";
+        url = sprintf (urlbase, name, ver);
+        ## Verify that the string exists on the page.
+        if (isempty (strfind (html, url)))
+          warning ("get_forge_pkg: download URL not verified.");
+        endif
+      endif
+    endif
+  else
+    ## Try get the list of all packages.
+    [html, succ] = urlread ("http://octave.sourceforge.net/packages.php");
+    if (succ)
+      [~, ~, ~, ~, t] = regexp (html, "<div class=""package"" id=""(\\w+)"">");
+      t = horzcat (t{:});
+      if (any (strcmp (t, name)))
+        error ("get_forge_pkg: package name exists, but index page not available");
+      else
+        ## Try a simplistic method to determine close names.
+        dist = cellfun (@(n) length (setdiff (name, n)), t);
+        [~, i] = min (dist);
+        error ("get_forge_pkg: package not found: ""%s"". Maybe you meant ""%s?""", name, t{i});
+      endif
+    else
+      error ("get_forge_pkg: could not read URL, please verify internet connection");
+    endif
+  endif
+
+endfunction

--- a/scripts/pkg/module.mk
+++ b/scripts/pkg/module.mk
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 FCN_FILE_DIRS += pkg
 
 pkg_FCN_FILES = \
-  pkg/pkg.m
+  pkg/pkg.m \
+  pkg/get_forge_pkg.m
 
 FCN_FILES += $(pkg_FCN_FILES)
 

--- a/scripts/pkg/pkg.m
+++ b/scripts/pkg/pkg.m
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 ## Copyright (C) 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 S�ren Hauberg
+## Copyright (C) 2010 VZLU Prague, a.s.
 ## 
 ## This file is part of Octave.
 ##
@@ -232,6 +233,7 @@
   auto = 0;
   action = "none";
   verbose = false;
+  octave_forge = false;
   for i = 1:length (varargin)
     switch (varargin{i})
       case "-nodeps"
@@ -242,6 +244,8 @@
         auto = 1;
       case "-verbose"
         verbose = true;
+      case "-forge"
+        octave_forge = true;
       case "-local"
         global_install = false;
         if (! user_prefix)
@@ -266,6 +270,10 @@
     endswitch
   endfor
 
+  if (octave_forge && ! strcmp (action, "install"))
+    error ("-forge can only be used with install");
+  endif
+
   ## Take action
   switch (action)
     case "list"
@@ -284,8 +292,26 @@
       if (length (files) == 0)
         error ("you must specify at least one filename when calling 'pkg install'");
       endif
-      install (files, deps, auto, prefix, archprefix, verbose, local_list, 
-               global_list, global_install);
+
+      local_files = {};
+      unwind_protect
+
+        if (octave_forge)
+          [urls, local_files] = cellfun (@get_forge_download, files, "uniformoutput", false);
+          [files, succ] = cellfun (@urlwrite, urls, local_files, "uniformoutput", false);
+          succ = [succ{:}];
+          if (! all (succ))
+            i = find (! succ, 1);
+            error ("could not download file %s from url %s", local_files{i}, urls{i});
+          endif
+        endif
+
+        install (files, deps, auto, prefix, archprefix, verbose, local_list, 
+                 global_list, global_install);
+
+      unwind_protect_cleanup
+        cellfun (@unlink, local_files);
+      end_unwind_protect
 
     case "uninstall"
       if (length (files) == 0)
@@ -2298,3 +2324,8 @@
     endif
   endfor
 endfunction
+
+function [url, local_file] = get_forge_download (name)
+  [ver, url] = get_forge_pkg (name);
+  local_file = [name, "-", ver, ".tar.gz"];
+endfunction