diff --git a/scripts/update b/scripts/update
index c3aef697..79412246 100755
--- a/scripts/update
+++ b/scripts/update
@@ -50,6 +50,12 @@ getPkgs() {
 
 updateOnePkg() {
   local attrPath="$1"
+
+  if [[ "$attrPath" =~ ^"$ignore" ]]; then
+    warn "ignoring $attrPath"
+    return
+  fi
+
   local updateScript="$(nix eval --raw -f . $attrPath.passthru.updateScript --apply 'builtins.concatStringsSep "'" "'"')"
   if [ -z "$updateScript" ]; then
     warn "don't know how to update '$attrPath'"
@@ -69,6 +75,7 @@ updateOnePkg() {
 }
 
 dryRun=
+ignore=
 toplevelsToUpdate=()
 verbose=
 parseArgs() {
@@ -91,6 +98,7 @@ parseArgs() {
     esac
   done
   if [ "${#toplevelsToUpdate[@]}" -eq 0 ]; then
+    ignore=sane.feeds
     toplevelsToUpdate=(sane)
   fi
 }