--- a/liboctave/str-vec.cc
+++ b/liboctave/str-vec.cc
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 #include <iostream.h>
 
 #include "cmd-edit.h"
+#include "lo-utils.h"
 #include "str-vec.h"
 
 // Create a string vector from a NULL terminated list of C strings.
@@ -57,6 +58,30 @@
     elem (i) = s[i];
 }
 
+char **
+string_vector::c_str_vec (void) const
+{
+  int len = length ();
+
+  char **retval = new char * [len + 1];
+
+  retval [len] = 0;
+
+  for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)
+    retval[i] = strsave (elem(i).c_str ());
+
+  return retval;
+}
+
+void
+string_vector::delete_c_str_vec (const char * const *v)
+{
+  while (*v)
+    delete [] *v;
+
+  delete [] v;
+}
+
 // Format a list in neat columns.  Mostly stolen from GNU ls.
 
 ostream&