diff --git a/tests/atlocal.in b/tests/atlocal.in
index 124a28e7..b56ef627 100644
--- a/tests/atlocal.in
+++ b/tests/atlocal.in
@@ -4,3 +4,26 @@
 
 PATH=@abs_builddir@:@abs_top_builddir@/src:@abs_top_srcdir@/build-aux:$top_srcdir:$srcdir:$PATH
 
+TEST_DATA_URL=ftp://download.gnu.org.ua/pub/tests/tar
+if test -z "$TEST_DATA_DIR"; then
+  TEST_DATA_DIR=$abs_builddir
+fi
+
+STAR_DATA_URL=http://download.berlios.de/pub/star/testscripts
+if test -z "$STAR_TESTSCRIPTS"; then
+  STAR_TESTSCRIPTS=$TEST_DATA_DIR
+fi  
+
+# tarball_prereq file sum dir url
+tarball_prereq() {
+  if test -d "$3"; then	
+    if test -r $3/$1; then
+      :
+    elif test -n "$FULL_TEST"; then
+      wget -q --directory-prefix=$3 $4/$1
+    fi
+  fi  
+  echo "$2  $3/$1" | md5sum --status --check - 
+}
+
+