diff --git a/openup b/openup
index aca201c..bbe2dc8 100755
--- a/openup
+++ b/openup
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ PKG_PATH_MAIN="http://ftp.fr.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/$(uname -r)/packages/$(arch
 PKG_PATH_UPDATE="https://stable.mtier.org/updates/$(uname -r)/$(arch -s)"
 # URL to the latest vuxml (vulnerabilities database)
 VUXML_URL="https://stable.mtier.org/vuxml/${_REL_INT}.xml"
+# exclusion list: pkg names without version/flavor, separated by space
+EXCLUDE_PKG=""
 ########################################################################
 ### End of user defined variables                                    ###
 ########################################################################
@@ -186,14 +188,17 @@ rm_old_bp() {
 }
 
 update_binpatches() {
-	local _BP _CMD
+	local _BP _CMD _b _e
 
-	_BP=$(pkg_info -Q binpatch${_REL_INT}-${_ARCH} | sed 's/.[^-]*$//' | sort -u | tr '\n' ' ')
+	_BP=$(pkg_info -Q binpatch${_REL_INT}-${_ARCH} | sed 's/.[^-]*$//' | sort -u)
 
 	if [ -n "${_BP}" ]; then
-		if [ -n "${exclude_kernel}" ]; then
-			_BP=$(echo ${_BP} | sed -e "s,binpatch${_REL_INT}-${_ARCH}-kernel,,g")
-		fi
+		for _e in ${EXCLUDE_PKG}; do
+			set -A _BP -- ${_BP}
+			_BP="$(for _b in ${_BP[@]}; do echo ${_b} | grep -v "^${_e}$"; done)"
+		done
+		_BP=$(echo "${_BP}" | tr '\n' ' ')
+
 		pr_bigarrow "Installing/updating binpatch(es)"
 		_CMD="pkg_add ${pkg_opt} ${_BP}"
 		pr_smallarrow "${_CMD}"
@@ -202,11 +207,17 @@ update_binpatches() {
 }
 
 update_pkg() {
-	local _CMD _PKG
+	local _CMD _PKG _e _p
 
 	_PKG=$(pkg_info -q | grep -v binpatch${_REL_INT}-${_ARCH})
 
 	if [ -n "${_PKG}" ]; then
+		for _e in ${EXCLUDE_PKG}; do
+			set -A _PKG -- ${_PKG}
+			_PKG="$(for _p in ${_PKG[@]}; do echo ${_p} | grep -v "^${_e}-.*"; done)"
+		done
+		_PKG=$(echo "${_PKG}" | tr '\n' ' ')
+
 		pr_bigarrow "Updating package(s)"
 		_CMD="pkg_add -quz ${pkg_opt}"
 		# we don't want to display ${_PKG}, there could be hundreds
@@ -218,16 +229,16 @@ update_pkg() {
 
 # this only outputs the most recent vulnerability for each matching pkg
 check_vuxml() {
-	local _BP_MATCH _OUTDATED _PAT _PKG_MATCH
+	local _BP_MATCH _OUTDATED _PAT _PKG_MATCH _b _e _p
 
 	ftp -Vo ${_TMPVUXML} ${VUXML_URL} >/dev/null || exit 1
 	perl -pi -e 's,\$ARCH,'"${_ARCH}"',g' ${_TMPVUXML}
 
 	_BP_MATCH="$(grep binpatch ${_TMPVUXML} | sed -e 's,<name>,,g;s,</name>,,g;s,\$ARCH,'"${_ARCH}"',g' | sort -u)"
-
-	if [ -n "${exclude_kernel}" ]; then
-		_BP_MATCH=$(echo ${_BP_MATCH} | sed -e "s,binpatch${_REL_INT}-${_ARCH}-kernel,,g")
-	fi
+	for _e in ${EXCLUDE_PKG}; do
+		set -A _BP_MATCH -- ${_BP_MATCH}
+		_BP_MATCH="$(for _b in ${_BP_MATCH[@]}; do echo ${_b} | grep -v "^${_e}$"; done)"
+	done
 
 	_PAT=$(pkg_info -q | perl -ne '/^(.*)-(\d[^-]*)[-]?(\w*)(.*)$/ && print "$1\n"' | \
 	       grep -v binpatch${_REL_INT}-${_ARCH} | \
@@ -235,8 +246,13 @@ check_vuxml() {
 	       sed 's/^|//' | sed -e 's,++,\\\++,g')
 	_PKG_MATCH=$(grep -Eo '<name>('"${_PAT}"')</name>' ${_TMPVUXML} | \
 		     sort -u | sed -e 's,<name>,,g;s,</name>,,g')
+	for _e in ${EXCLUDE_PKG}; do
+		set -A _PKG_MATCH -- ${_PKG_MATCH}
+		_PKG_MATCH="$(for _p in ${_PKG_MATCH[@]}; do echo ${_p} | grep -v "^${_e}$"; done)"
+	done
 
-	_OUTDATED=$((pkg_add -qnv -Dnosig -Dunsigned ${_BP_MATCH}; pkg_add -qnuv -Dnosig -Dunsigned ${_PKG_MATCH}) 2>/dev/null | \
+	# set to "quirks" if empty to prevent running pkg_add against an empty pkg list
+	_OUTDATED=$((pkg_add -qnv -Dnosig -Dunsigned ${_BP_MATCH:=quirks}; pkg_add -qnuv -Dnosig -Dunsigned ${_PKG_MATCH:=quirks}) 2>/dev/null | \
 		    grep '^Adding.*(pretending)' | \
 		    sort -u | \
 		    sed -e 's,Adding ,,;s,(pretending),,;s,->.*,,' | \
@@ -288,9 +304,15 @@ fi
 
 check_openupd
 
+if [ -n "${exclude_kernel}" ]; then
+	EXCLUDE_PKG="binpatch${_REL_INT}-${_ARCH}-kernel ${EXCLUDE_PKG}"
+fi
+if [ -n "${EXCLUDE_PKG}" ]; then
+	pr_bigarrow "Excluded package(s)/binpatch(es): ${EXCLUDE_PKG}"
+fi
+
 if [ "${checkmode}" ]; then
 	check_vuxml
-
 else
 	if [ -z "${nosig}" ]; then
 		if [ "${_REL_INT}" -lt 55 ]; then