unable to find the mkoctfile command

[Marco Atzeri]

working on packing octave and forge packages, I just hit
this very unusual error:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
$ octave
GNU Octave, version 3.8.0

[cut]
Octave was configured for "i686-pc-cygwin".
[cut]

octave:1> pkg install general-1.3.2.tar.gz
pkg: unable to find the mkoctfile command, Octave installation is incomplete
error: called from '__gripe_missing_component__' in file 
/usr/share/octave/3.8.0/m/help/__gripe_missing_component__.m near line 
53, column 3
error: called from:
error:   /usr/share/octave/3.8.0/m/pkg/private/install.m at line 199, 
column 5
error:   /usr/share/octave/3.8.0/m/pkg/pkg.m at line 394, column 9
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

As of course mkoctfile is where should be

 $ which mkoctfile
/usr/bin/mkoctfile

 $ mkoctfile --version
mkoctfile, version 3.8.0

something else went wrong on my packaging.
Any idea where to look for ?

Regards
Marco