[TUHS] Bootstrapping UNIX - how was it done

[Noel Chiappa via TUHS]

    > From: Adam Koszek

    > How was UNIX bootstrapped in the early days?

Reading some of the later replies, it strikes me that the term "bootstrapped"
has two distinct meanings:

1 - Bring a computer, on which a set of software is fully installed and
operational, from a powered-off state to a fully up one, running that
pre-installed software (this is the question I thought you were asking, and
answered).

2 - Move a set of existing software from one type of machine to another. (A
much more common event, now that we have portable software. Speaking of
portable software, I'm still amazed that this, which became one of Unix's
most important attributes, and a major driver in its spread, after V7, does
not appear to have been really thought about before V6/V7 was ported to
several other architectures.)

Which one (if not both) were you thinking of?


    > with regards to what hardware was available.

These files:

  https://web.archive.org/web/20250731052141/https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V4/nsys/ken/11-45
  https://web.archive.org/web/20251114044234/https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V4/nsys/ken/low.s

give a bit of info about what PDP-11 hardware was there circa V4.

	Noel