seems i cannot fully understand {/,/usr/local/}/etc/rc.d/*

[RW]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2012 09:45:07 +0100
Matthew Seaman wrote:

> #!/bin/sh
> #
> # Persuade vboxheadless to start before samba.
> 
> # PROVIDE: precedence
> # REQUIRE: vboxheadless
> # BEFORE: samba
> 
> :
> 
> Make it executable.  Note -- the ':' does seem to be necessary.

Why? None of the dummy scripts in the base system have a ":".