A lightweight global distribution mechanism distributes packages within a distributed system. The packages may hold any type of content and may hold contents such as patches, programs, documents or files. The distribution mechanism is lightweight in that it incurs minimal computational and memory overhead. With the distribution mechanism, a package index that identifies packages for installation is stored at a publishing master. Client systems may access and analyze the package index to determine which packages to install. The client systems may hold subscription lists that identify the packages to which the clients subscribe. The packages need not be stored at the publishing master but rather may be stored at separate repositories.