preferred way to disable init.d script

[Gebhardt Thomas <gebhardt@hrz.uni-marburg.de>]

Hi,

sometimes it is necessary to have a software package installed
but you do not want to run the included system service/daemon.
Some packages provide a switch in /etc/defaults to manage this.
Other packages don't. What is the preferred way to handle these
packages?

I tried several strategies, but always found some drawbacks:

1. rename /etc/init.s/<service> to  /etc/init.s/<service>.dectivated
-> sometimes (de-)install scripts depends on the existance of
 /etc/init.s/<service> and fail on upgrades

2. put "exit 0" in /etc/init.s/<service>
-> cannot start service by hand using " /etc/init.s/<service> start"
-> additional noise on upgrades: replace or leave /etc/init.s/<service> ?

3. update-rc.d -f <service> remove
-> service gets silently reinstalled on upgrades

So is there a smart solution I don't know?

Thanks, Thomas