How To Install init-system-helpers on Debian 9

In this tutorial we learn how to install init-system-helpers on Debian 9. init-system-helpers is helper tools for all init systems

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install init-system-helpers on Debian 9.

What is init-system-helpers

init-system-helpers is:

This package contains helper tools that are necessary for switching between the various init systems that Debian contains (e. g. sysvinit or systemd). An example is deb-systemd-helper, a script that enables systemd unit files without depending on a running systemd.

It also includes the “service”, “invoke-rc.d”, and “update-rc.d” scripts which provide an abstraction for enabling, disabling, starting, and stopping services for all supported Debian init systems as specified by the policy.

While this package is maintained by pkg-systemd-maintainers, it is NOT specific to systemd at all. Maintainers of other init systems are welcome to include their helpers in this package.

There are three methods to install init-system-helpers on Debian 9. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install init-system-helpers Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install init-system-helpers using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install init-system-helpers

Install init-system-helpers Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install init-system-helpers using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install init-system-helpers

Install init-system-helpers Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install init-system-helpers using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install init-system-helpers

How To Uninstall init-system-helpers on Debian 9

To uninstall only the init-system-helpers package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove init-system-helpers

Uninstall init-system-helpers And Its Dependencies

To uninstall init-system-helpers and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 9, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove init-system-helpers

Remove init-system-helpers Configurations and Data

To remove init-system-helpers configuration and data from Debian 9 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge init-system-helpers

Remove init-system-helpers configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove init-system-helpers configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge init-system-helpers

Dependencies

init-system-helpers have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install init-system-helpers package on Debian 9 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.