What Is Bootstrap?

You're sitting there you have nothing to do, all alone. You hit the power button to play the latest movie that your friend just handed over the disk to you, and nothing happens. Nothing at all. Just a blank screen with no sign of life from your computer—no sound, no movement, no light. Just like a total blackout, one that you have never imagined or experienced. And then you remember: this is what it's like to have an OS without a bootstrap. When you bootstrap, you're pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. That's why it's called bootstrapping! While the term originated in the early 1950s, it only refers to a bootstrap load button on computers that initiated a hardwired bootstrap program or a minor program that executed a more extensive program such as the OS. The term was derived from an expression: "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps," which is just another way of saying "starting small and loading programs one at a time." Bootstrapping in software engineering refers to loading a piece of software that enables the startup of another piece of software. In this case, the bootstrapping program may be required to run a diagnostic test to ensure it is in working order. After the diagnostic test has been run, the bootstrap program may load another program or piece of software. Software engineers may also use the term bootstrapping when referring to loading the software into an appliance or software-defined hardware, such as a data center. In this case, the bootstrapping process may involve loading software onto a hard drive that is then used to load the leading software to enable the data center to function. Bootstrapping, or booting up, is starting something with minimal resources and gradually expanding it.