Bootstrap Loaders

Bootstrap loaders are short programs designed to read in larger, more complex programs or to access initial information (such as an IP address or other network parameters). Such programs are used at powerup of a user computer or server or startup of a particular session on a network--starting by lifting by one's own bootstraps, at it were.

URLs:

RFC.951: Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP)

This RFC describes an IP/UDP bootstrap protocol (BOOTP) which allows a diskless client machine to discover its own IP address, the address of a server host, and the name of a file to be loaded into memory and executed.