diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/hg.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/hg.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..037a2ab66b01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/hg.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+{stdenv, fetchurl, g77, readline, ncurses, perl, flex,
+ bison, autoconf, automake, sourceByName, getConfig, lib, atlas, gperf, python, glibc, gnuplot, texinfo, texLive}:
+
+assert readline != null && ncurses != null && flex != null;
+assert g77.langF77;
+
+let commonBuildInputs = [g77 readline ncurses perl glibc]; in
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation ({
+  NIX_LDFLAGS = "-lpthread";
+  configureFlags = "--enable-readline --enable-dl --disable-static --enable-shared";
+  meta = { 
+      description = "High-level interactive language for numerical computations";
+      homepage = http://www.octave.org;
+      license = "GPL-3";
+    };
+} // (
+  if (getConfig ["octave" "devVersion"] false) then {
+    name = "octave-hg"; # developement version mercurial repo
+    src =  sourceByName "octave";
+    # HOME is set to $TMP because octave needs to access ${HOME}/.octave_hist while running targets
+    # in doc/interpreter.. Maybe this can be done better. This hack is fastest :)
+    preConfigure = ''
+        # glob is contained in glibc! Don't know why autotools want to use -lglob
+        sed -i 's/-lglob//' configure.in
+        ./autogen.sh
+        export HOME=$TMP
+        '';
+    buildInputs = commonBuildInputs ++ [ flex bison autoconf automake gperf gnuplot texinfo texLive ]
+                  ++ lib.optionals (getConfig ["octave" "atlas"] true) [ python atlas ];
+    # it does build, but documentation doesn't.. So just remove that directory
+    # from the buildfile
+    buildPhase = ''
+      sed -i octMakefile \
+        -e 's/^\(INSTALL_SUBDIRS = .*\)doc \(.*\)$/\1 \2/' \
+        -e 's/^\(SUBDIRS = .*\)doc \(.*\)$/\1 \2/' \
+        -e 's/\$(MAKE) -C doc/#/'
+      make
+    '';
+  } else {
+    name = "octave-3.1.51";
+    src =  fetchurl {
+      url = ftp://ftp.octave.org/pub/octave/bleeding-edge/octave-3.1.51.tar.bz2;
+      sha256 = "0v0khhpmydyimvdl2rswfd0jrcqa9rhd3cyi60zhqv2hi0bhmkh8";
+    };
+    buildInputs = commonBuildInputs ++ [ flex bison autoconf automake python ]
+                  ++ lib.optionals (getConfig ["octave" "atlas"] true) [ python atlas ];
+  }
+))
diff --git a/pkgs/misc/bleeding-edge-fetch-infos.nix b/pkgs/misc/bleeding-edge-fetch-infos.nix
index 339c487562e9..86a75eac5bb1 100644
--- a/pkgs/misc/bleeding-edge-fetch-infos.nix
+++ b/pkgs/misc/bleeding-edge-fetch-infos.nix
@@ -223,4 +223,8 @@
     url = "http://mawercer.de/~nix/repos/hg2git-4c77e121b739d2aac8a23352503763343823f870.tar.gz";
     sha256 = "22354d36937bf9e5d3e3dfc1a3ef9e3f2bc183b8e114a23958a2b10f83abc97e";
   };
+ octave = args: with args; fetchurl { # Mon Dec  1 23:23:49 UTC 2008
+   url = "http://mawercer.de/~nix/repos/octave-03b414516dd8.tar.gz";
+   sha256 = "28ca0be1407954e746909241bda95c5bf0a04f611e73100c1e3967ddc249c519";
+ };
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 6ecec7fccaf2..4bdb5b0acb52 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -2038,6 +2038,15 @@ let
     g77 = g77_42;
   };
 
+  # mercurial (hg) bleeding edge version
+  octaveHG = import ../development/interpreters/octave/hg.nix {
+    inherit fetchurl readline ncurses perl flex atlas getConfig glibc;
+    inherit automake autoconf bison gperf lib python gnuplot texinfo texLive; # for dev Version
+    stdenv = overrideGCC stdenv gcc40;
+    g77 = g77_42;
+    inherit (bleedingEdgeRepos) sourceByName;
+  };
+
   perl = if !stdenv.isLinux then sysPerl else realPerl;
 
   perl58 = if !stdenv.isLinux then sysPerl else