GridFS is a specification for storing and retrieving files that exceed the BSON-document size limit of 16 MB.
GridFS 用于存储和恢复那些超过16M（BSON文件限制）的文件(如：图片、音频、视频等)。
GridFS 也是文件存储的一种方式，但是它是存储在MonoDB的集合中。
GridFS 可以更好的存储大于16M的文件。
GridFS 会将大文件对象分割成多个小的chunk(文件片段),一般为256k/个,每个chunk将作为MongoDB的一个文档(document)被存储在chunks集合中。
GridFS 用两个集合来存储一个文件：fs.files与fs.chunks。
每个文件的实际内容被存在chunks(二进制数据)中,和文件有关的meta数据(filename,content_type,还有用户自定义的属性)将会被存在files集合中。
Instead of storing a file in a single document, GridFS divides the file into parts, or chunks , and stores each chunk as a separate document. By default, GridFS uses a chunk size of 255 kB; that is, GridFS divides a file into chunks of 255 kB with the exception of the last chunk. The last chunk is only as large as necessary. Similarly, files that are no larger than the chunk size only have a final chunk, using only as much space as needed plus some additional metadata.
GridFS uses two collections to store files. One collection stores the file chunks, and the other stores file metadata. The section GridFS Collections describes each collection in detail.
When you query GridFS for a file, the driver will reassemble the chunks as needed. You can perform range queries on files stored through GridFS. You can also access information from arbitrary sections of files, such as to “skip” to the middle of a video or audio file.
GridFS is useful not only for storing files that exceed 16 MB but also for storing any files for which you want access without having to load the entire file into memory. See also When to Use GridFS.
Changed in version 2.4.10: The default chunk size changed from 256 kB to 255 kB.
When to Use GridFS
In MongoDB, use GridFS for storing files larger than 16 MB.
In some situations, storing large files may be more efficient in a MongoDB database than on a system-level filesystem.
If your filesystem limits the number of files in a directory, you can use GridFS to store as many files as needed.
When you want to access information from portions of large files without having to load whole files into memory, you can use GridFS to recall sections of files without reading the entire file into memory.
When you want to keep your files and metadata automatically synced and deployed across a number of systems and facilities, you can use GridFS. When using geographically distributed replica sets, MongoDB can distribute files and their metadata automatically to a number of mongod instances and facilities.
Do not use GridFS if you need to update the content of the entire file atomically. As an alternative you can store multiple versions of each file and specify the current version of the file in the metadata. You can update the metadata field that indicates “latest” status in an atomic update after uploading the new version of the file, and later remove previous versions if needed.
Furthermore, if your files are all smaller the 16 MB BSON Document Size limit, consider storing the file manually within a single document instead of using GridFS. You may use the BinData data type to store the binary data. See your drivers documentation for details on using BinData.
为什么要用GridFS
由于MongoDB 中BSON 对象大小是有限制的，所以GridFS 规范提供了一种透明的机制，可以将一个大文件分割成为多个较小的文档，这样的机制允许我们有效的保存大文件对象，特别对于那些巨大的文件，比如视频、高清图片等。
GridFS 使用两个表来存储数据：
files 包含元数据对象
chunks 包含其他一些相关信息的二进制块
为了使多个GridFS 命名为一个单一的数据库，文件和块都有一个前缀，默认情况下，前缀是fs，所以任何默认的GridFS 存储将包括命名空间fs.files 和fs.chunks。各种第三方语言的驱动有权限改变这个前缀，所以你可以尝试设置另一个GridFS 命名空间用于存储照片，它的具体位置为:photos.files 和photos.chunks。
32-bit MongoDB processes are limited to about 2 gb of data. This has come as a surprise to a lot of people who are used to not having to worry about that. The reason for this is that the MongoDB storage engine uses memory-mapped files for performance.
By not supporting more than 2gb on 32-bit, we’ve been able to keep our code much simpler and cleaner. This greatly reduces the number of bugs, and reduces the time that we need to release a 1.0 product. The world is moving toward all 64-bit very quickly. Right now there aren’t too many people for whom 64-bit is a problem, and in the long term, we think this will be a non-issue.