Added file storage documentation and updated hash storage oneupdate-upload-documentation

1 files changed, 48 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/development/file_storage.md b/doc/development/file_storage.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1d95057b9a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/development/file_storage.md
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# File Storage in GitLab
+
+We use the [CarrierWave] gem to handle file upload, store and retrieval.
+
+There are many places where file uploading is used, according to contexts:
+
+* System
+  - Instance Logo (logo visible in sign in/sign up pages)
+  - Header Logo (one displayed in the navigation bar)
+* Group
+  - Group avatars
+* User
+  - User avatars
+  - User snippet attachments
+* Project
+  - Project avatars
+  - Issues/MR Markdown attachments
+  - Issues/MR Legacy Markdown attachments
+  - CI Build Artifacts
+  - LFS Objects
+
+
+## Disk storage
+
+GitLab started saving everything on local disk. While directory location changed from previous versions,
+they are still not 100% standardized. You can see them below:
+
+| Description                           | In DB? | Relative path                                               | Uploader class         | model_type |
+| ------------------------------------- | ------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------- | ---------- |
+| Instance logo                         | yes    | uploads/-/system/appearance/logo/:id/:filename              | `AttachmentUploader`   | Appearance |
+| Header logo                           | yes    | uploads/-/system/appearance/header_logo/:id/:filename       | `AttachmentUploader`   | Appearance |
+| Group avatars                         | yes    | uploads/-/system/group/avatar/:id/:filename                 | `AvatarUploader`       | Group      |
+| User avatars                          | yes    | uploads/-/system/user/avatar/:id/:filename                  | `AvatarUploader`       | User       |
+| User snippet attachments              | yes    | uploads/-/system/personal_snippet/:id/:random_hex/:filename | `PersonalFileUploader` | Snippet    |
+| Project avatars                       | yes    | uploads/-/system/project/avatar/:id/:filename               | `AvatarUploader`       | Project    |
+| Issues/MR Markdown attachments        | yes    | uploads/:project_path_with_namespace/:random_hex/:filename  | `FileUploader`         | Project    |
+| Issues/MR Legacy Markdown attachments | no     | uploads/-/system/note/attachment/:id/:filename              | `AttachmentUploader`   | Note       |
+| CI Artifacts (CE)                     | yes    | shared/artifacts/(?)                                        | `ArtifactUploader`     | Ci::Build  |
+| LFS Objects  (CE)                     | yes    | shared/lfs-objects/:hex/:hex/:object_hash                   | `LfsObjectUploader`    | LfsObject  |
+
+CI Artifacts and LFS Objects behave differently in CE and EE. In CE they inherit the `GitlabUploader`
+while in EE they inherit the `ObjectStoreUploader` and store files in and S3 API compatible object store.
+
+In the case of Issues/MR Markdown attachments, there is a different approach using the **Hashed Storage** layout,
+instead of basing the path into a mutable variable `:project_path_with_namespace`, it's possible to use the
+hash of the project ID instead, if project migrates to the new approach (introduced in 10.2).
+
+[CarrierWave]: https://github.com/carrierwaveuploader/carrierwave