preinst is in xscreensaver 5.30-1+deb8u2.
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  | #!/bin/sh
# preinst script for xscreensaver
#
# see: dh_installdeb(1)
set -e
# Remove a no-longer used conffile
rm_conffile() {
    local PKGNAME="$1"
    local CONFFILE="$2"
    [ -e "$CONFFILE" ] || return 0
    local md5sum="$(md5sum $CONFFILE | sed -e 's/ .*//')"
    local old_md5sum="$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}' $PKGNAME | \
            sed -n -e "\' $CONFFILE ' { s/ obsolete$//; s/.* //; p }")"
    if [ "$md5sum" != "$old_md5sum" ]; then
        echo "Obsolete conffile $CONFFILE has been modified by you."
        echo "Saving as $CONFFILE.dpkg-bak ..."
        mv -f "$CONFFILE" "$CONFFILE".dpkg-bak
    else
        echo "Removing obsolete conffile $CONFFILE ..."
        rm -f "$CONFFILE"
    fi
}
case "$1" in
install|upgrade)
    # Remove a file which was mistakenly shipped in 5.10-2
    # and kept in 5.10-3 but deleted unconditionally since 5.10-4
    if dpkg --compare-versions "$2" le "5.10-3"; then
        rm_conffile xscreensaver "/etc/X11/Xsession.d/80xscreensaver_start"
    fi
    # Was shipped in -3,-4,-5 but deleted unconditionally since 5.10-6
    if dpkg --compare-versions "$2" le "5.10-5"; then
        rm_conffile xscreensaver "/etc/xdg/autostart/xscreensaver-daemon.desktop"
    fi
esac
exit 0
 |