diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 90bcf1810..69d898d01 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ Changes from current Ant 1.7.0Beta1 version to current SVN version
 Changes that could break older environments:
 -------------------------------------------
 
+* <script> and <scriptdef> now set the current thread context.
+
 Fixed bugs:
 -----------
 
@@ -14,6 +16,13 @@ Fixed bugs:
 Other changes:
 --------------
 
+* added setbeans attribute to <script> to allow <script>'s to be
+  run without referencing all references.
+  Bugzilla report 37688.
+* added classpath attribute and nested element to <script> to allow
+  the language jars to be specified in the build script.
+  Bugzilla report 29676.
+
 Changes from Ant 1.6.5 to Ant 1.7.0Beta1
 ========================================
 
diff --git a/docs/manual/OptionalTasks/script.html b/docs/manual/OptionalTasks/script.html
index e7cc6acba..187be8217 100644
--- a/docs/manual/OptionalTasks/script.html
+++ b/docs/manual/OptionalTasks/script.html
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ See <a href="../install.html#librarydependencies">Library Dependencies</a> for m
 accessible from the script, using either their <code>name</code> or
 <code>id</code> attributes (as long as their names are considered
 valid Java identifiers, that is).
+This is controlled by the "setbeans" attribute of the task.
 The name "project" is a pre-defined reference to the Project, which can be
 used instead of the project name. The name "self" is a pre-defined reference to the actual
 <code>&lt;script&gt;</code>-Task instance.<br>From these objects you have access to the Ant Java API, see the
@@ -54,7 +55,50 @@ Groups@Google: "Rhino, enum.js, JavaAdapter?"</a> by Norris Boyd in the newsgrou
     <td valign="top">The location of the script as a file, if not inline</td>
     <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">setbeans</td>
+    <td valign="top">
+      This attribute controls whether to set variables for
+      all properties, references and targets in the running script.
+      If this attribute is false, only the the "project" and "self" variables are set.
+      If this attribute is true all the variables are set. The default value of this
+      attribute is "true".  <em>Since Ant 1.7</em>
+    </td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">classpath</td>
+    <td valign="top">
+      The classpath to pass into the script. <em>Since Ant 1.7</em>
+    </td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">classpathref</td>
+    <td valign="top">The classpath to use, given as a
+       <a href="../using.html#references">reference</a> to a path defined elsewhere.
+    <em>Since Ant 1.7</em></td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
+  </tr>
 </table>
+<h3>Parameters specified as nested elements</h3>
+<h4>classpath</h4>
+  <p><em>Since Ant 1.7</em></p>
+<p>
+  <code>Script</code>'s <code>classpath</code> attribute is a 
+  <a href="../using.html#path">path-like structure</a> and can also be set via a nested
+  <code>&lt;classpath&gt;</code> element.
+  <p>
+    If a classpath is set, it will be used as the current thread context classloader, and
+    as the classloader given to the BSF manager. This means that it can be used to specify
+    the classpath containing the language implementation. This can be usefull if one wants
+    to keep ${user.home}/.ant/lib free of lots of scripting language specific jar files.
+  </p>
+  <p>
+    <b>NB:</b> This classpath cannot (currently) be used to specify the location of
+    the BSF jar file.
+  </p>
+</p>
 <h3>Examples</h3>
 The following snippet shows use of five different languages:
   <blockquote><pre>
@@ -85,6 +129,9 @@ print "message is %s" % message
   Note that for the <i>jython</i> example, the script contents <b>must</b>
   start on the first column.
   </p>
+  <p>
+    Note also that for the <i>ruby</i> example, the names of the set variables are prefixed
+    by a '$'.
   <p>
     The following script shows a little more complicated jruby example:
   </p>
@@ -103,6 +150,19 @@ print "message is %s" % message
   xmlfiles = new java.io.File(".").listFiles().findAll{ it =~ "\.xml$"}
   xmlfiles.sort().each { self.log(it.toString())}
 &lt;/script&gt;
+</pre>
+  </blockquote>
+  <p>
+    The following example shows the use of classpath to specify the location
+    of the beanshell jar file.
+  </p>
+  <blockquote><pre>
+&lt;script language="beanshell" setbeans="true"&gt;
+  &lt;classpath&gt;
+    &lt;fileset dir="${user.home}/lang/beanshell" includes="*.jar" /&gt;
+  &lt;/classpath&gt;
+  System.out.println("Hello world");
+&lt;/script&gt;
 </pre>
   </blockquote>
   <p>
@@ -257,7 +317,7 @@ appropriate logging before and after invoking execute().
 
 
 <hr>
-<p align="center">Copyright &copy; 2000-2005 The Apache Software Foundation. All rights
+<p align="center">Copyright &copy; 2000-2006 The Apache Software Foundation. All rights
 Reserved.</p>
 
 </body>
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/Script.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/Script.java
index 5858bcba8..94721e064 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/Script.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/Script.java
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ import java.io.File;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.BuildException;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.Task;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.util.ScriptRunner;
+import org.apache.tools.ant.types.Path;
+import org.apache.tools.ant.types.Reference;
 
 /**
  * Executes a script.
@@ -29,9 +31,11 @@ import org.apache.tools.ant.util.ScriptRunner;
  */
 public class Script extends Task {
 
-    private String language;
-    private File   src;
-    private String text;
+    private Path    classpath;
+    private String  language;
+    private File    src;
+    private String  text;
+    private boolean setBeans = true;
 
     /**
      * Do the work.
@@ -49,8 +53,14 @@ public class Script extends Task {
         if (text != null) {
             runner.addText(text);
         }
-
-        runner.bindToComponent(this);
+        if (classpath != null) {
+            runner.setClasspath(classpath);
+        }
+        if (setBeans) {
+            runner.bindToComponent(this);
+        } else {
+            runner.bindToComponentMinimum(this);
+        }
 
         runner.executeScript("ANT");
     }
@@ -81,4 +91,49 @@ public class Script extends Task {
     public void addText(String text) {
         this.text = text;
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Set the classpath to be used when searching for classes and resources.
+     *
+     * @param classpath an Ant Path object containing the search path.
+     */
+    public void setClasspath(Path classpath) {
+        createClasspath().append(classpath);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Classpath to be used when searching for classes and resources.
+     *
+     * @return an empty Path instance to be configured by Ant.
+     */
+    public Path createClasspath() {
+        if (this.classpath == null) {
+            this.classpath = new Path(getProject());
+        }
+        return this.classpath.createPath();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Set the classpath by reference.
+     *
+     * @param r a Reference to a Path instance to be used as the classpath
+     *          value.
+     */
+    public void setClasspathRef(Reference r) {
+        createClasspath().setRefid(r);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Set the setbeans attribute.
+     * If this is true, &lt;script&gt; will create variables in the
+     * script instance for all
+     * properties, targets and references of the current project.
+     * It this is false, only the project and self variables will
+     * be set.
+     * The default is true.
+     * @param setBeans the value to set.
+     */
+    public void setSetBeans(boolean setBeans) {
+        this.setBeans = setBeans;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/ScriptRunner.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/ScriptRunner.java
index 7a07df28d..2292542e9 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/ScriptRunner.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/ScriptRunner.java
@@ -20,8 +20,11 @@ package org.apache.tools.ant.util;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+
 import org.apache.bsf.BSFException;
 import org.apache.bsf.BSFManager;
+
+import org.apache.tools.ant.AntClassLoader;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.BuildException;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectComponent;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.Project;
@@ -29,6 +32,7 @@ import org.apache.tools.ant.Project;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Iterator;
+import org.apache.tools.ant.types.Path;
 
 /**
  * This class is used to run BSF scripts
@@ -57,6 +61,11 @@ public class ScriptRunner {
     /** Beans to be provided to the script */
     private Map beans = new HashMap();
 
+    /** Classpath to be used when running the script. */
+    private Path classpath = null;
+
+    /** Project this runner is used in */
+    private Project project = null;
 
     /**
      * Add a list of named objects to the list to be exported to the script
@@ -111,8 +120,18 @@ public class ScriptRunner {
             throw new BuildException("script language must be specified");
         }
 
+        ClassLoader origContextClassLoader =
+            Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
+        ClassLoader scriptLoader = getClass().getClassLoader();
+        if (classpath != null && project != null) {
+            AntClassLoader loader = project.createClassLoader(classpath);
+            loader.setParent(scriptLoader);
+            scriptLoader = loader;
+        }
         try {
+            Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(scriptLoader);
             BSFManager manager = new BSFManager ();
+            manager.setClassLoader(scriptLoader);
 
             for (Iterator i = beans.keySet().iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
                 String key = (String) i.next();
@@ -141,6 +160,9 @@ public class ScriptRunner {
                 }
             }
             throw new BuildException(t);
+        } finally {
+             Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(
+                 origContextClassLoader);
         }
     }
 
@@ -162,6 +184,13 @@ public class ScriptRunner {
         return language;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Set the class path to be used.
+     */
+    public void setClasspath(Path classpath) {
+        this.classpath = classpath;
+    }
+    
     /**
      * Load the script from an external file ; optional.
      *
@@ -203,7 +232,7 @@ public class ScriptRunner {
      * @param component to become <code>self</code>
      */
     public void bindToComponent(ProjectComponent component) {
-        Project project = component.getProject();
+        project = component.getProject();
         addBeans(project.getProperties());
         addBeans(project.getUserProperties());
         addBeans(project.getTargets());
@@ -211,4 +240,15 @@ public class ScriptRunner {
         addBean("project", project);
         addBean("self", component);
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Bind the runner to a project component.
+     * The project and self are the only beans set.
+     * @param component to become <code>self</code>
+     */
+    public void bindToComponentMinimum(ProjectComponent component) {
+        project = component.getProject();
+        addBean("project", project);
+        addBean("self", component);
+    }
 }