4.2.5.1. Tools

The chkconfig or update-rc.d utilities, when installed on your system, provide a simple command-line tool for maintaining the /etc/init.d directory hierarchy. These relieve system administrators from having to directly manipulate the numerous symbolic links in the directories under /etc/rc[x].d.

In addition, some systems offer the ntsysv tool, which provides a text-based interface; you may find this easier to use than chkconfig's command-line interface. On SuSE Linux, you will find the yast and insserv tools. For Mandrake easy configuration, you may want to try DrakConf, which allows among other features switching between run levels 3 and 5. In Mandriva this became the Mandriva Linux Control Center.

Most distributions provide a graphical user interface for configuring processes, check with your system documentation.

All of these utilities must be run as root. The system administrator may also manually create the appropriate links in each run level directory in order to start or stop a service in a certain run level.