Since there are so many similarities and differences between Linux distributions, I put together this quick summary of the differences between the startup commands on a few of the popular distros (Red Hat, Debian/Ubuntu, and Gentoo):
The commands:
Red Hat: chkconfig
Debian: update-rc.d
Gentoo: rc-update
Start on bootup using the defaults:
chkconfig --add foobar
chkconfig foobar on
—
update-rc.d foobar defaults
—
rc-update add foobar default
Explicitly setting run levels (the 30/70 below are the sequence numbers):
chkconfig --level 2345 foobar on
chkconfig --level 016 foobar off
—
update-rc.d foobar start 30 2 3 4 5 . stop 70 0 1 6 .
Disabling/removing a service:
chkconfig foobar off
chkconfig --del foobar
—
update-rc.d foobar stop 20 2 3 4 5 .
update-rc.d -f foobar remove
—
rc-update del foobar
List current settings (no Debian version):
chkconfig --list foobar
—
rc-status --all
To view startup commands for debian, you can always use:
ls /etc/rc?.d/
;)
Good point, the majority of Linux distributions use the SYS V file system of /etc/rcX.d/ and can be manipulated and displayed directly from the file system.