== link:index.html[Index] -> link:config.html[Configuration] -> link:config_virtual_servers.html[Virtual servers]
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Last checked: 2010/04/26 Cherokee 0.99.46b
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Advanced Virtual Hosting
------------------------

Cherokee currently support a mechanism by which a single virtual
server can handle many different domains. The document root of this
virtual server is built dynamically, so even if the domains share a
common configuration they can use a number of different Document Root
directories.

.Basics
image::media/images/admin_vserver_evhost.png[Advanced Virtual Hosting]

The following replacement variables are supported. Let's suppose a
request to the `alo.users.example.com` domain for the examples:

[options="header"]
|===================================================================
|Variable           |Example               |Description
|`${domain}`        |alo.users.example.com |Full domain name
|`${tld}`           |com                   |Top Level Domain
|`${domain_no_tld}` |alo.users.example     |Domain without the TLD
|`${root_domain}`   |example.com           |Root domain
|`${subdomain1}`    |users                 |First sub-domain
|`${subdomain2}`    |alo                   |Second sub-domain
|===================================================================


[[slicing]]
Slicing
~~~~~~~
The template subsystem is sophisticated enough to provide slicing
support, with a grammar that is heavily inspired in the Python syntax.
It supports positive and negative indexes, and the omission of one of
the index numbers.

This basically allows to define partial replacements for any of the
supported variables, meaning that a portion of the replacement string
can be used instead of the whole string.

If you are not familiar with the Python syntax, these are the rules:

. For any given `string`, a slice is denoted as `string[x:y]`

. Indices start at 0, and [x:y] denotes a range comprehending from
index x (included) to index y (excluded).

. If negative indices are used, the count starts backwards from the
last element, meaning -1 will be the last, -2 will be the previous one
and so on.

It is pretty straight forward. Here are some examples:

[options="header"]
|===================================================================
|Variable         |Explanation
|`${domain}[:1]`  |From the beginning of the string until the character
                   at index `1` (not included)
|`${domain}[1:2]` |From index `1` (included), to index `2` (not included)
|`${domain}[:-1]` |From the beginning of the string until the last
                   character (not included). Since `0` is the first
                   character, counting backwards one element would be
                   the last element of the string.
|===================================================================


As a practical usage example, we will suppose a scenario where
thousands of virtual servers are distributed within a two-level
directory tree in order to speed things up. Something like:

-------
  /var/www/e/x/example.com
  /var/www/c/h/cherokee-project.com
  /var/www/1/2/12345.com
-------

The "Advanced Virtual Hosting" supports this type of set-up by using
slices on the ${domain} macro.

-------
  /var/www/${domain}[:1]/${domain}[1:2]/${domain}
-------