This tutorial will explain how one can activate, deactivate or modify a service start up on Debian.

Removing a service:

# update-rc.d -f apache2 remove

Where: -f is to force the removal of the symlinks even if there is still /etc/init.d/apache2.

This command will only disable the service until next time the service is upgraded. To make sure the service won't be re-enabled upon upgrade, you should also type the following:

# update-rc.d apache2 stop 80 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 .

Adding a service:

# update-rc.d apache defaults
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/apache2 ...
/etc/rc0.d/K20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc1.d/K20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc6.d/K20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc2.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc3.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc4.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc5.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2 

Custom priorities.

This will Start and Kill apache2 with 20:

# update-rc.d apache defaults 91
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/apache2 ...
/etc/rc0.d/K91apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc1.d/K91apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc6.d/K91apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc2.d/S91apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc3.d/S91apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc4.d/S91apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc5.d/S91apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2 

Different priorities for Start and Kill.

This will Start apache with 20 and Kill with 80:

# update-rc.d apache2 defaults 20 80
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/apache2 ...
/etc/rc0.d/K80apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc1.d/K80apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc6.d/K80apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc2.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc3.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc4.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc5.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2 

Specifying custom runlevels:

This will Start apache with priority 20 on runlevels 2, 3, 4 and 5 and Kill with priority 80 on runlevels 0, 1 and 6:

# update-rc.d apache2 start 20 2 3 4 5 . stop 80 0 1 6 .
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/apache2 ...
/etc/rc0.d/K80apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc1.d/K80apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc6.d/K80apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc2.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc3.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc4.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc5.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2 

Or, Start with priority 20 for runlevel 2, 3 and 4 and priority 30 for runlevel 5 and kill with priority 80 for runlevel 0, 1 and 6:

# update-rc.d apache2 start 20 2 3 4 . start 30 5 . stop 80 0 1 6 .
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/apache2 ...
/etc/rc0.d/K80apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc1.d/K80apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc6.d/K80apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc2.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc3.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc4.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc5.d/S30apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2

Reference:
http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-manage-services-with-update-rc.d