Google Clouds Appengine storage

Question

Im new to the Appengine and I can't seem to work out the static file serving. I have read through all the official related docs.

I understand that tagging the directory or files as static in the app.yaml will "host them separated from your source". However I can't find any more info.

After the app engine deployment, I see two GCS buckets. The default bucket "projectname.appspot.com" and a staging bucket "staging.projectname.appspot.com". My project has many static files, which are all served correctly however the default bucket is totally empty. Where are these files actually stored?

I can find very little information on what exactly the staging bucket is and how its used other than its "for temporary files" which are deleted after a week. This staging bucket seems to hold both the source and static files however all the file names are hashed so its not immediately obvious.

My question is where exactly do app engine static files go? Where and how are they stored? My app is a Django based app if its relevant.

Answer 1

The static files aren't saved to your app's buckets, but in Google's infra dedicated for directly serving static content, which isn't accessible to you like your app's buckets.

See also the accepted answer to Does Google App Engine use google CDN to distribute static resources?

Normally you shouldn't need to worry about where the static files are stored - as long as the deployment is successful you can trust Google will serve them for your app.