Description: Cherokee is a flexible, very fast, lightweight Web server. It is implemented entirely in C, and has no dependencies beyond a standard C library. It is embeddable and extensible with plug-ins. It supports on-the-fly configuration by reading files or strings, TLS/SSL (via GNUTLS or OpenSSL), virtual hosts, authentication, cache friendly features, PHP, custom error management, and much more.
Keywords: cherokee web server httpd http

## Index → Getting started

## Running Cherokee

There are several ways you can run Cherokee:

1. Automatic start: this makes use of the mechanism offered by your OS that should have been configured when Cherokee was installed. It will run making use of the `cherokee.conf` present in your system.

2. Guardian wrapper: The cherokee program comes as a standard part of the Cherokee bundle. It is a security mechanism that ensures Cherokee’s recovery in case of any system failure and wraps the calls to `cherokee-worker`. This is what is actually launched when Cherokee is automatically started.

3. Stand alone instance: Cherokee supports a series of parameters to launch it from the command line. Refer to the the appropriate documentation section about `cherokee-worker` to see the complete list of optional arguments.

4. Cherokee-Admin: The administration web interface allows you to configure and launch Cherokee. This is probably where you want to start if you have just installed the web server. Launch the `cherokee-admin` process and follow the Quickstart section of the documentation.