diff --git a/meta/lib/oe/package_manager.py b/meta/lib/oe/package_manager.py
index fcf05dc282..986ae54942 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oe/package_manager.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oe/package_manager.py
@@ -531,6 +531,9 @@ class PackageManager(object):
         cmd = [bb.utils.which(os.getenv('PATH'), "oe-pkgdata-util"),
                "-p", self.d.getVar('PKGDATA_DIR', True), "glob", installed_pkgs_file,
                globs]
+        exclude = self.d.getVar('PACKAGE_EXCLUDE_COMPLEMENTARY', True)
+        if exclude:
+            cmd.extend(['-x', exclude])
         try:
             bb.note("Installing complementary packages ...")
             complementary_pkgs = subprocess.check_output(cmd, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/pkgdata.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/pkgdata.py
index f689bf344e..34eea468e8 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/pkgdata.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/pkgdata.py
@@ -207,6 +207,11 @@ class OePkgdataUtilTests(oeSelfTest):
         # The following should not error (because when we use this during rootfs construction, sometimes the complementary package won't exist)
         result = runCmd('oe-pkgdata-util glob %s "*-nonexistent"' % pkglistfile)
         self.assertEqual(result.output, '')
+        # Test exclude option
+        result = runCmd('oe-pkgdata-util glob %s "*-dev *-dbg" -x "^libz"' % pkglistfile)
+        resultlist = result.output.split()
+        self.assertNotIn('libz-dev', resultlist)
+        self.assertNotIn('libz-dbg', resultlist)
 
     def test_specify_pkgdatadir(self):
         result = runCmd('oe-pkgdata-util -p %s lookup-pkg glibc' % get_bb_var('PKGDATA_DIR'))
diff --git a/scripts/oe-pkgdata-util b/scripts/oe-pkgdata-util
index 5a9f89b31b..b075775b8f 100755
--- a/scripts/oe-pkgdata-util
+++ b/scripts/oe-pkgdata-util
@@ -55,7 +55,10 @@ def glob(args):
         logger.error('Unable to find package list file %s' % args.pkglistfile)
         sys.exit(1)
 
-    skipregex = re.compile("-locale-|^locale-base-|-dev$|-doc$|-dbg$|-staticdev$|^kernel-module-")
+    skipval = "-locale-|^locale-base-|-dev$|-doc$|-dbg$|-staticdev$|^kernel-module-"
+    if args.exclude:
+        skipval += "|" + args.exclude
+    skipregex = re.compile(skipval)
 
     mappedpkgs = set()
     with open(args.pkglistfile, 'r') as f:
@@ -466,6 +469,7 @@ def main():
                                           description='Expands one or more glob expressions over the packages listed in pkglistfile')
     parser_glob.add_argument('pkglistfile', help='File listing packages (one package name per line)')
     parser_glob.add_argument('glob', nargs="+", help='Glob expression for package names, e.g. *-dev')
+    parser_glob.add_argument('-x', '--exclude', help='Exclude packages matching specified regex from the glob operation')
     parser_glob.set_defaults(func=glob)