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# Introduction

## Scope

The Standard Erlang Libraries application, _STDLIB_, is mandatory in the sense
that the minimal system based on Erlang/OTP consists of _STDLIB_ and _Kernel_.

_STDLIB_ contains the following functional areas:

- Erlang shell
- Command interface
- Query interface
- Interface to standard Erlang I/O servers
- Interface to the Erlang built-in term storage BIFs
- Regular expression matching functions for strings and binaries
- Finite state machine
- Event handling
- Functions for the server of a client-server relation
- Function to control applications in a distributed manner
- Start and control of slave nodes
- Operations on finite sets and relations represented as sets
- Library for handling binary data
- Disk-based term storage
- List processing
- Maps processing

## Prerequisites

It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the Erlang programming language.