prerm is in r-base-core 3.0.2-1ubuntu1.
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 | #!/bin/sh
#
# prerm script for the Debian GNU/Linux r-base-core package
# This version written by Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd@debian.org>   
set -e
    
case "$1" in
    remove|purge)
	# edd 03 Apr 2003  cf Section 10.1.2 of Debian Policy
	rmdir /usr/local/lib/R/site-library 2>/dev/null || true
	rmdir /usr/local/lib/R/ 2>/dev/null || true
	# edd 10 May 2009  cf Section 10.7.3 of Debian Policy
	#                  and well as #527618
	rm /etc/R/Renviron 2>/dev/null || true
	ucf --purge /etc/R/Renviron
	ucfr --purge r-base-core /etc/R/Renviron
    ;;
    upgrade|abort-upgrade|abort-remove|abort-deconfigure)
    ;;
    *)
	echo "prerm called with unknown argument \`$1'" >&2
    ;;
esac
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