diff --git a/test/test.py b/test/test.py
index ebd71d0..61e75b0 100644
--- a/test/test.py
+++ b/test/test.py
@@ -1,12 +1,48 @@
 import os
 import subprocess
 import shutil
+import sys
 
 HERE = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
 
 # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
+# we do not use the nicer sys.version_info.major
+# for compatibility with Python < 2.7
+if sys.version_info[0] > 2:
+    import urllib.request
+
+    class URLopener(urllib.request.FancyURLopener):
+        def http_error_default(self, url, fp, errcode, errmsg, headers):
+            sys.stderr.write("ERROR: could not fetch %s\n" % url)
+            sys.exit(-1)
+else:
+    import urllib
+
+    class URLopener(urllib.FancyURLopener):
+        def http_error_default(self, url, fp, errcode, errmsg, headers):
+            sys.stderr.write("ERROR: could not fetch %s\n" % url)
+            sys.exit(-1)
+
+# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+def fetch_url(src, dst):
+    """
+    Fetch file from URL src and save it to dst.
+    """
+    dirname = os.path.dirname(dst)
+    if dirname != '':
+        if not os.path.isdir(dirname):
+            os.makedirs(dirname)
+
+    opener = URLopener()
+    opener.retrieve(src, dst)
+
+# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
 def exe(command):
     stdout, stderr = subprocess.Popen(command.split(),
                                       stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
@@ -19,7 +55,11 @@ def exe(command):
 def test_cxx():
     os.chdir(os.path.join(HERE, 'cxx', 'cmake'))
     shutil.copy(os.path.join('..', '..', '..', 'update.py'), 'update.py')
-    stdout, stderr = exe('python update.py --self')
+    if not os.path.exists('lib'):
+        os.makedirs('lib')
+    shutil.copy(os.path.join('..', '..', '..', 'lib', 'config.py'), 'lib')
+    fetch_url(src='https://github.com/docopt/docopt/raw/master/docopt.py',
+              dst='lib/docopt.py')
     stdout, stderr = exe('python update.py ..')
     os.chdir(os.path.join(HERE, 'cxx'))
     stdout, stderr = exe('python setup.py --cxx=g++')
@@ -34,7 +74,11 @@ def test_cxx():
 def test_fc():
     os.chdir(os.path.join(HERE, 'fc', 'cmake'))
     shutil.copy(os.path.join('..', '..', '..', 'update.py'), 'update.py')
-    stdout, stderr = exe('python update.py --self')
+    if not os.path.exists('lib'):
+        os.makedirs('lib')
+    shutil.copy(os.path.join('..', '..', '..', 'lib', 'config.py'), 'lib')
+    fetch_url(src='https://github.com/docopt/docopt/raw/master/docopt.py',
+              dst='lib/docopt.py')
     stdout, stderr = exe('python update.py ..')
     os.chdir(os.path.join(HERE, 'fc'))
     stdout, stderr = exe('python setup.py --fc=gfortran')