If you need to have the apache2 debian package installed but you don't need to have the apache2 daemon started at boot time, there is a solution: rcconf
sudo apt-get install rcconf sudo rcconf
Then you can choose in the list the services you need to startup at boot time. This trick applies for every debian services (apache2, mysql, ntp, ssh …).
Discussion
I tryed it on Debian Lenny by
1. Renaming the link in /etc/rc2.d from S… to K…
2. Using rcconf
3. Using chkconfig
But I'm not able to disable Apache 2 automatic startup after a reboot. The same with cron worked for me (with chkconfig). What else can I do?
this command worked for me :
sudo update-rc.d -f apache2 removesudo is very important otherwise update-rc.d script will not be found.