How to regenerate /etc/init.d/.depend.(boot|start|stop) on Debian?

Question

Suppose one deleted the following files.

/etc/init.d/.depend.boot
/etc/init.d/.depend.start
/etc/init.d/.depend.stop

How to regenerate them?

Solution

Good question. The only reference I've found to those files is in man insserv:

   /etc/init.d/.depend.boot,
   /etc/init.d/.depend.start,
   /etc/init.d/.depend.stop
          The make(1) like dependency files produced by  insserv  for  booting,
          starting, and stopping with the help of startpar(8).

And in fact, running just plain insserv touches their modification time. So try that and see if it rebuilds them.

As a tip, when you are tempted to delete something like this for whatever reason, move them to a temporary trash directory instead.

Comments

[Jeff Hewitt]

They are not associated with any package on my Debian system.

[yo']

Isn't it obvious that those files are system-wise not package-wise? This simply cannot work, as I understand it, they contain information from many packages!

[S edwards]

@tohecz This is obvious that those script came from somthing and more likely a package as they are not on my debian and more over when I read those kind of thing goatpr0n.de/blog/2008/04/…

[S edwards]

@JosephR. do you have them install ?

[Jeff Hewitt]

I'm inclined to agree with @tohecz on this. These scripts are generated based on the services you have installed. They do not depend on a single package.

[goldilocks]

I don't think you have to re-install / re-configure insserv, you just have to run it (see my answer).

[adrelanos]

insserv regenerated them.

[adrelanos]

There is no such dpkg --reinstall option.