diff --git a/maintain_catalog.py b/maintain_catalog.py
index 25aa6e7..e5a48b1 100755
--- a/maintain_catalog.py
+++ b/maintain_catalog.py
@@ -186,6 +186,7 @@ for p in packages.values():
     else:
         p.useExistingCatalogData()
 
+excludeFilePath = os.path.join(rootDir, "zip-excludes.lst")
 
 # def f(x):
 #     x.generateZip(outPath)
@@ -196,7 +197,7 @@ for p in packages.values():
 # print(p.map(f,packagesToGenerate))
 
 for p in packagesToGenerate:
-   p.generateZip(outPath)
+   p.generateZip(outPath, excludeFilePath)
    p.extractThumbnails(thumbnailPath)
 
 print "Creating catalog"
diff --git a/package.py b/package.py
index 263e95a..2d0d48a 100644
--- a/package.py
+++ b/package.py
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ class PackageData:
             if not os.path.exists(os.path.join(self._path, t)):
                 raise RuntimeError("missing thumbnail:" + t);
 
-    def generateZip(self, outDir):
+    def generateZip(self, outDir, globalExcludePath):
         self._revision = self._previousRevision + 1
 
         zipName = self.id + ".zip"
@@ -173,6 +173,9 @@ class PackageData:
         # anything we can do to make this faster?
 
         zipArgs = ['zip', '--quiet', '-r']
+        if os.path.exists(globalExcludePath):
+            zipArgs += [ "-x@" + globalExcludePath]
+
         excludePath = os.path.join(self.path, 'package-exclude.lst')
         if (os.path.exists(excludePath)):
             print self.id, "has zip exclude list"