On the
Amiga, the file "startup-sequence" in the directory s of the boot device (
floppy in earlier models, harddisk in upgraded or later ones) was a
script that got executed by the
boot ROM and contained all the commands necessary to get from a minimal
CLI interface to a
GUI with additional
daemons and utility programs running.
Basically, it was the same as AUTOEXEC.BAT on MSDOS or the combination of init and the runlevel scripts on SysV Unix. Later versions of AmigaOS actually had a more sophisticated boot process somewhat similar to the SysV mechanism, in which the startup-sequence called other scripts in certain special directories.