purge extension doesn't need "#!/usr/bin/env python".
(from the Debian package: deb_specific__hgpurge.py.patch)
#!/bin/sh
hg init
echo 123 > a
hg add a
hg commit -m "first" -d "1000000 0" a
mkdir sub
echo 321 > sub/b
hg add sub/b
hg commit -m "second" -d "1000000 0" sub/b
cat sub/b
hg co 0
cat sub/b 2>/dev/null || echo "sub/b not present"
test -d sub || echo "sub not present"
true