prerm is in dpkg 1.16.1.2ubuntu7.
This file is a maintainer script. It is executed when installing (*inst) or removing (*rm) the package.
The actual contents of the file can be viewed below.
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 | #!/bin/sh -e
# This script can be called in the following ways:
#
# Before the package is removed:
#      <prerm> remove
#
# Before an upgrade:
#      <old-prerm> upgrade <new-version>
# if that fails:
#      <new-prerm> failed-upgrade <old-version>
#
#
# Before package is deconfigured while dependency is replaced due to conflict:
#      <prerm> deconfigure in-favour <new-package> <version>
#              removing <old-package> <version>
#
# Before the package is replaced due to conflict:
#      <prerm> remove in-favour <new-package> <version>
downgrade_multiarch_infodb()
{
    admindir=${DPKG_ADMINDIR:-/var/lib/dpkg}
    pkgadmindir=$admindir/info
    coinst_pkgs="`ls "$pkgadmindir" | \
        sed -n -e 's/^\([^:]\+:[^.]\+\)\..*$/\1/p' | sort -u | \
        cut -d: -f1 | uniq -d`"
    # Abort if we cannot possibly downgrade
    if [ -n "$coinst_pkgs" ]; then
        cat <<- MSG
	dpkg: error: You have more than one architecture instance for some
	installed 'Multi-Arch: same' packages, to be able to downgrade dpkg
	you will need to have only one instance installed per package.
	List of co-installed packages:
	$coinst_pkgs
	MSG
        exit 1
    fi
    bad_dep_pkgs=$(dpkg-query -f'${Package} ${Depends} ${Recommends} ${Suggests} ${Enhances} ${Conflicts} ${Replaces} ${Breaks}\n' -W | \
	grep ":any" | cut -d" " -f1 | sort -u)
    if [ -n "$bad_dep_pkgs" ]; then
        cat <<- MSG
	dpkg: error: Some installed packages have multiarch dependencies
	that the old dpkg won't parse. You should get rid of them
	(or downgrade them to versions without those dependencies) before
	proceeding with dpkg's downgrade.
	List of affected packages:
	$bad_dep_pkgs
	MSG
	exit 1
    fi
    for dep in Depends Recommends Suggests Enhances \
	       Conflicts Replaces Breaks; do
	if grep -qE "^$dep:.*:any" $admindir/available; then
		cat <<- MSG
		dpkg: error: $admindir/available references packages with
		multiarch dependencies that the old dpkg won't parse. You
		should clear this file with "dpkg --clear-avail" before
		proceeding with dpkg's downgrade.
		MSG
		exit 1
	fi
    done
    echo "Downgrading the multiarch dpkg control files database ..."
    ls $pkgadmindir | grep : | while read oldfile; do
        # We first do a round of hardlinks to the new names, so that the db
        # will never be unusable for either of the dpkg versions.
        newfile=$(echo $oldfile | sed -e 's/:[^.]\+//')
        ln "$pkgadmindir/$oldfile" "$pkgadmindir/$newfile"
    done
    echo -n "1" >$admindir/format
}
ensure_no_triggers_noawait()
{
    admindir=${DPKG_ADMINDIR:-/var/lib/dpkg}
    pkgadmindir=$admindir/info
    trig_noawait=$(find "$pkgadmindir" -name "*.triggers" -type f | \
                   xargs -r grep -El "^(interest|activate)-(no)?await" | \
		   sed -e 's,^.*/\([^/.:]\+\)[^/]\+$,\1,')
    # Abort if we cannot possibly downgrade
    if [ -n "$trig_noawait" ]; then
        cat <<- MSG
	dpkg: error: You have packages using the "interest-noawait" and/or
	"activate-noawait" trigger directives but the dpkg version that
	you're trying to downgrade to doesn't support them. Aborting
	downgrade.
	List of affected packages:
	$trig_noawait
	MSG
        exit 1
    fi
    bad_triggers_files=$(find "$admindir/triggers" -type f | \
                         xargs -r grep -l "/noawait$" || true)
    if [ -n "$bad_triggers_files" ]; then
        cat <<- MSG
	dpkg: error: Some internal trigger files unexpectedly reference
	packages tagged with "/noawait" while their corresponding
	infodb files doesn't seem to contain any "interest-noawait"
	directive. Aborting the downgrade as those tags are not supported
	by the version you're trying to downgrade to.
	List of internal trigger files that are affected:
	$bad_triggers_files
	MSG
	exit 1
    fi
}
case "$1" in
    upgrade)
        # Downgrade the multiarch db to a “monoarch” db layout
        if dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt 1.16.0~ubuntu4; then
	    if dpkg --compare-versions "$2" ge 1.16.0~ubuntu1; then
		# this version had provisional multiarch support with
		# a different layout.
		infodir="/var/lib/dpkg/info/$(dpkg --print-architecture)"
		# since this version of dpkg may have been configured using
		# the old version, the directory might have been recreated
		# under us - so handle this case by removing and converting
		# to a symlink.
		if [ -d "$infodir" ] && ! [ -L "$infodir" ]; then
		    # if this fails, it's because it has contents, so
		    # downgrading will corrupt the dpkg database.  let it fail
		    # before things get out of hand!
		    rmdir "$infodir"
		fi
		if [ ! -d "$infodir" ]; then
		    ln -sf . "$infodir"
		fi
	    fi
            downgrade_multiarch_infodb
        fi
        # Allow the downgrade only if no package is using the
	# (interest|activate)-noawait trigger directives
        if dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt 1.16.1~; then
            ensure_no_triggers_noawait
        fi
        ;;
    remove|failed-upgrade|deconfigure)
        ;;
    *)
        echo "$0 called with unknown argument \`$1'" 1>&2
        exit 1
        ;;
esac
exit 0
 |