# phpman > man > deb-systemd-helper(1p)

[DEB-SYSTEMD-HELPER(1p)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/DEB-SYSTEMD-HELPER/1p/markdown)                   init-system-helpers                  [DEB-SYSTEMD-HELPER(1p)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/DEB-SYSTEMD-HELPER/1p/markdown)



## NAME
       deb-systemd-helper - subset of systemctl for machines not running systemd

## SYNOPSIS
       **deb-systemd-helper** enable | disable | purge | mask | unmask | is-enabled | was-enabled |
       debian-installed | update-state | reenable _unit__ _file_ ...

## DESCRIPTION
       **deb-systemd-helper** is a Debian-specific helper script which re-implements the enable,
       disable, is-enabled and reenable commands from systemctl.

       The "enable" action will only be performed once (when first installing the package). On the
       first "enable", a state file is created which will be deleted upon "purge".

       The "mask" action will keep state on whether the service was enabled/disabled before and will
       properly return to that state on "unmask".

       The "was-enabled" action is not present in systemctl, but is required in Debian so that we
       can figure out whether a service was enabled before we installed an updated service file. See
       <http://bugs.debian.org/717603> for details.

       The "debian-installed" action is also not present in systemctl. It returns 0 if the state
       file of at least one of the given units is present.

       The "update-state" action is also not present in systemctl. It updates **deb-systemd-helper**'s
       state file, removing obsolete entries (e.g. service files that are no longer shipped by the
       package) and adding new entries (e.g.  new service files shipped by the package) without
       enabling them.

       **deb-systemd-helper** is intended to be used from maintscripts to enable systemd unit files. It
       is specifically NOT intended to be used interactively by users. Instead, users should run
       systemd and use systemctl, or not bother about the systemd enabled state in case they are not
       running systemd.

## ENVIRONMENT
       ___**DEB**___**SYSTEMD**___**HELPER**___**DEBUG**
           If you export _DEB_SYSTEMD_HELPER_DEBUG=1, deb-systemd-helper will print debug messages
           to stderr (thus visible in dpkg runs). Please include these when filing a bugreport.

## AUTHOR
       Michael Stapelberg <<stapelberg@debian.org>>



1.62                                         2022-02-15                       [DEB-SYSTEMD-HELPER(1p)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/DEB-SYSTEMD-HELPER/1p/markdown)