Index: src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Main.java
===================================================================
--- src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Main.java	(revision 904751)
+++ src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Main.java	(working copy)
@@ -18,13 +18,18 @@
 
 package org.apache.tools.ant;
 
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.BufferedWriter;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
-import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
+import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.PrintStream;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.Enumeration;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.HashSet;
@@ -345,8 +350,11 @@
                     throw new BuildException(msg);
                 }
             } else if (arg.equals("-buildfile") || arg.equals("-file")
-                       || arg.equals("-f")) {
-                i = handleArgBuildFile(args, i);
+                    || arg.equals("-f")) {
+             i = handleArgBuildFile(args, i);
+            } else if (arg.equals("-buildurl") || arg.equals("-url")
+                    || arg.equals("-u")) {
+             i = handleArgBuildURL(args, i);
             } else if (arg.equals("-listener")) {
                 i = handleArgListener(args, i);
             } else if (arg.startsWith("-D")) {
@@ -496,6 +504,39 @@
         return pos;
     }
 
+
+    /** Handle the -buildurl, -url, -u argument */
+    private int handleArgBuildURL(String[] args, int pos) {
+        try {
+        	URL url = new URL(args[++pos]);
+        	
+        	buildFile = File.createTempFile("ant", null);
+        	buildFile.deleteOnExit();
+        	
+        	// Download buildFile contents
+        	
+        	BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(buildFile));
+
+        	BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(url.openStream())); 
+        	String str; 
+        	while ((str = in.readLine()) != null) { 
+        		out.write(str);
+        		out.write("\n");
+        	} 
+        	in.close(); 
+        	out.close();
+        	
+        } catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException aioobe) {
+            throw new BuildException(
+                "You must specify a buildfile when using the -buildfile argument");
+        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
+        	throw new BuildException("Malformed URL provided - " + e.getMessage(), e);
+		} catch (IOException e) {
+			throw new BuildException("Could not do file operation - " + e.getMessage(), e);
+		}
+        return pos;
+    }
+
     /** Handle -listener argument */
     private int handleArgListener(String[] args, int pos) {
         try {
@@ -947,6 +988,9 @@
         msg.append("  -buildfile <file>      use given buildfile" + lSep);
         msg.append("    -file    <file>              ''" + lSep);
         msg.append("    -f       <file>              ''" + lSep);
+        msg.append("  -buildurl  <url>       download and use buildfile from given url " + lSep);
+        msg.append("    -url     <url>               ''" + lSep);
+        msg.append("    -u       <url>               ''" + lSep);
         msg.append("  -D<property>=<value>   use value for given property" + lSep);
         msg.append("  -keep-going, -k        execute all targets that do not depend" + lSep);
         msg.append("                         on failed target(s)" + lSep);