diff --git a/maintain_catalog.py b/maintain_catalog.py
index 0c503b1..d317455 100755
--- a/maintain_catalog.py
+++ b/maintain_catalog.py
@@ -166,8 +166,11 @@ repositories = initRepositories()
 
 for scm in repositories:
     for p in scanPackages(scm):
-        p.scanSetXmlFiles(includePaths)
-        packages[p.id] = p
+        try:
+            p.scanSetXmlFiles(includePaths)
+            packages[p.id] = p
+        except:
+            print "Skipping SCM package due to exception:", p.path
 
 if os.path.exists(existingCatalogPath):
     try:
diff --git a/package.py b/package.py
index 0d692c5..4c2e59c 100644
--- a/package.py
+++ b/package.py
@@ -106,7 +106,8 @@ class PackageData:
                 continue
 
             simNode = node.getChild("sim")
-            if (simNode.getValue("exclude", False)):
+            # honour variosu exclusion flags
+            if (simNode.getValue("exclude-from-catalog", False) or simNode.getValue("exclude-from-gui", False)):
                 continue
 
             primary = simNode.getValue("variant-of", None)