diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/build-octave-package.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/build-octave-package.nix
index 43760c6c511e3..8fc219d00d74f 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/build-octave-package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/build-octave-package.nix
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
   stdenv,
   config,
   octave,
+  callPackage,
   texinfo,
   computeRequiredOctavePackages,
   writeRequiredOctavePackagesHook,
@@ -64,13 +65,6 @@ let
     writeRequiredOctavePackagesHook
   ] ++ nativeBuildInputs;
 
-  passthru' = {
-    updateScript = [
-      ../../../../maintainers/scripts/update-octave-packages
-      (builtins.unsafeGetAttrPos "pname" octave.pkgs.${attrs.pname}).file
-    ];
-  } // passthru;
-
   # This step is required because when
   # a = { test = [ "a" "b" ]; }; b = { test = [ "c" "d" ]; };
   # (a // b).test = [ "c" "d" ];
@@ -81,9 +75,9 @@ let
     "nativeBuildInputs"
     "passthru"
   ];
-
 in
 stdenv.mkDerivation (
+  finalAttrs:
   {
     packageName = "${fullLibName}";
     # The name of the octave package ends up being
@@ -136,7 +130,22 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (
     # together with Octave.
     dontInstall = true;
 
-    passthru = passthru';
+    passthru =
+      {
+        updateScript = [
+          ../../../../maintainers/scripts/update-octave-packages
+          (builtins.unsafeGetAttrPos "pname" octave.pkgs.${attrs.pname}).file
+        ];
+      }
+      // passthru
+      // {
+        tests = {
+          testOctaveBuildEnv = (octave.withPackages (os: [ finalAttrs.finalPackage ])).overrideAttrs (old: {
+            name = "${finalAttrs.name}-pkg-install";
+          });
+          testOctavePkgTests = callPackage ./run-pkg-test.nix { } finalAttrs.finalPackage;
+        } // passthru.tests or { };
+      };
 
     inherit meta;
   }
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/run-pkg-test.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/run-pkg-test.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..4665fc92f5270
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/run-pkg-test.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+{
+  octave,
+  runCommand,
+}:
+package:
+
+runCommand "${package.name}-pkg-test"
+  {
+    nativeBuildInputs = [
+      (octave.withPackages (os: [ package ]))
+    ];
+  }
+  ''
+    { octave-cli --eval 'pkg test ${package.pname}' || touch FAILED_ERRCODE; } \
+      |& tee >( grep --quiet '^Failure Summary:$' && touch FAILED_OUTPUT || : ; cat >/dev/null )
+    if [[ -f FAILED_ERRCODE ]]; then
+      echo >&2 "octave-cli returned with non-zero exit code."
+      false
+    elif [[ -f FAILED_OUTPUT ]]; then
+      echo >&2 "Test failures detected in output."
+      false
+    else
+      touch $out
+    fi
+  ''