diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
index 73f13c11a7db..428d97eaf794 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
@@ -2,8 +2,11 @@
 libX11, graphicsmagick, pcre, liblapack, texLive, pkgconfig, mesa, fltk,
 fftw, fftwSinglePrec, zlib, curl, qrupdate }:
 
+let
+  version = "3.6.4";
+in
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "octave-3.6.4";
+  name = "octave-${version}";
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "mirror://gnu/octave/${name}.tar.bz2";
     sha256 = "0qn9s7jrjmrn6w3rvp8d7vfnymyv0spnxzrp9l7p8p8zb7wms67s";
@@ -27,6 +30,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     cp test/fntests.log $out/share/octave/${name}-fntests.log
   '';
 
+  passthru = {
+    inherit version;
+    sitePath = "share/octave/${version}/site";
+  };
+
   meta = {
     homepage = http://octave.org/;
     license = "GPLv3+";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/nlopt/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/nlopt/default.nix
index 0936332cd489..cc216a59d758 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/nlopt/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/nlopt/default.nix
@@ -1,12 +1,19 @@
-{ fetchurl, stdenv }:
+{ fetchurl, stdenv
+, withOctave ? true, octave ? null}:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "nlopt-2.2.1";
+  name = "nlopt-2.3";
 
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "http://ab-initio.mit.edu/nlopt/${name}.tar.gz";
-    sha256 = "0p7ri7dcp6vga7jwng7wj9bf2ixk6p5ldxp76r93xkrdixqfngaq";
+    sha256 = "1iw2cjgypyqz779f47fz0nmifbrvk4zs4rxi1ibk36f4ly3wg6p6";
   };
 
-  configureFlags = "--with-cxx --with-pic --without-guile --without-python --without-octave --without-matlab";
+  buildInputs = stdenv.lib.optional withOctave octave;
+
+  configureFlags = "--with-cxx --enable-shared --with-pic --without-guile --without-python
+  --without-matlab " +
+    stdenv.lib.optionalString withOctave ("--with-octave " +
+        "M_INSTALL_DIR=$(out)/${octave.sitePath}/m " +
+        "OCT_INSTALL_DIR=$(out)/${octave.sitePath}/oct ");
 }