This helper should only used as a fallback (last resort) as it is not
    guaranteed that it will be absolutely correct.

def is_upstart(conn):
    """
    This helper should only used as a fallback (last resort) as it is not
    guaranteed that it will be absolutely correct.
    """
    # it may be possible that we may be systemd and the caller never checked
    # before so lets do that
    if is_systemd(conn):
        return False

    # get the initctl executable, if it doesn't exist we can't proceed so we
    # are probably not upstart
    initctl = conn.remote_module.which('initctl')
    if not initctl:
        return False

    # finally, try and get output from initctl that might hint this is an upstart
    # system. On a Ubuntu 14.04.2 system this would look like:
    # $ initctl version
    # init (upstart 1.12.1)
    stdout, stderr, _ = remoto.process.check(
        conn,
        [initctl, 'version'],
    )
    result_string = b' '.join(stdout)
    if b'upstart' in result_string:
        return True
    return False