Re: RFC: update-rc.d <script> disable|reenable

[Marvin Renich <mrvn@renich.org>]

* Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org> [080924 02:09]:
> 
> If you rename all symlinks to K??, as the patch does, you will get such
> a behaviour.
> I.e. when you boot your system, the service will not be started
> automatically. It also won't be stopped or started when you change a
> runlevel, even if you have started it manually.
> 
> Yeah, maybe the terms automatic and manual are clearer for what is
> actually happening.
> 
> Michael

There are two things wrong with that.  First, not stopping a service
when both the new and previous runlevels have a K link is an explicit
optimization, not the defined behavior.  The traditional definition of a
K link was to kill the service when changing to that runlevel if the
service was running.  Second, it loses information about whether the
original link was S or K.

Prepending "~" (or some other character) allows temporarily suspending
the automatic runlevel handling of that service, and then restoring it,
including restoring any customization done by the sysadmin.

This also has the distinct advantage that a directory listing for a
single /etc/rc#.d gives clear information about what is intended for
that service.  Was the service disabled, or is it supposed to be stopped
at this runlevel?

...Marvin

P.S.  I am subscribed; please don't CC me when replying to the list.