Comment 31 for bug 256131

Yes, it fails to unregister the old documents because scrollkeeper prerm still fails to execute update-xmlcatalog .

===
Removing scrollkeeper ...
Can't locate File/Spec/Functions.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
Can't locate File/Spec/Functions.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
===

Then xml-core fails to unregister itself for the same reason.

===
Preparing to replace xml-core 0.11 (using .../xml-core_0.11ubuntu1_all.deb) ...
Can't locate File/Spec/Functions.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
Can't locate File/Spec/Functions.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
Can't locate File/Spec/Functions.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
Can't locate File/Spec/Functions.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/sbin/update-xmlcatalog line 124
===

And then rarian installation fails with the error mentioned above.

The new version of xml-core should be installed before the removal of scrollkeeper otherwise scrollkeeper can't unregister it's documents and then rarian installation fails .