This special remote type stores file contents in a bucket in Amazon S3
or a similar service.

See [[tips/using_Amazon_S3]], 
[[tips/Internet_Archive_via_S3]], and [[tips/using_Google_Cloud_Storage]]
for usage examples.

## configuration

The standard environment variables `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` and 
`AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY` are used to supply login credentials
for S3. You need to set these only when running
`git annex initremote`, as they will be cached in a file only you
can read inside the local git repository. If you’re working with
temporary security credentials, you can also set the `AWS_SESSION_TOKEN`
environment variable.

A number of parameters can be passed to `git annex initremote` to configure
the S3 remote.

* `encryption` - One of "none", "hybrid", "shared", or "pubkey".
  See [[encryption]].

* `keyid` - Specifies the gpg key to use for [[encryption]].

* `chunk` - Enables [[chunking]] when storing large files.
  `chunk=1MiB` is a good starting point for chunking.

* `embedcreds` - Optional. Set to "yes" embed the login credentials inside
  the git repository, which allows other clones to also access them. This is
  the default when gpg encryption is enabled; the credentials are stored
  encrypted and only those with the repository's keys can access them.

  It is not the default when using shared encryption, or no encryption.
  Think carefully about who can access your repository before using
  embedcreds without gpg encryption.

* `datacenter` - Defaults to "US". Other values include "EU" (which is EU/Ireland),
  "us-west-1", "us-west-2", "ap-southeast-1", "ap-southeast-2", and
  "sa-east-1".

* `storageclass` - Default is "STANDARD".  
  Consult S3 provider documentation for pricing details and available
  storage classes.

  When using Amazon S3, if you have configured git-annex to preserve
  multiple [[copies]], consider setting this to "REDUCED_REDUNDANCY"
  to save money. 
  
  Or, if the remote will be used for backup or archival,
  and so its files are Infrequently Accessed, "STANDARD_IA" is also a
  good choice to save money. (Requires a git-annex built with aws-0.13.0)

  When using Google Cloud Storage, to make a nearline bucket, set this to
  "NEARLINE". (Requires a git-annex built with aws-0.13.0)

  Note that changing the storage class of an existing S3 remote will
  affect new objects sent to the remote, but not objects already
  stored there.

* `host` - Specify in order to use a different, S3 compatable
  service.

* `protocol` - Either "http" (the default) or "https". Setting
  protocol=https implies port=443.

* `port` - Specify the port to connect to. Only needed when using a service
  on an unusual port. Setting port=443 implies protocol=https.

* `requeststyle` - Set to "path" to use path style requests, instead of the
  default DNS style requests. This is needed with some S3 services.

  If you get an error about a host name not existing, it's a good
  indication that you need to use this.

* `bucket` - S3 requires that buckets have a globally unique name, 
  so by default, a bucket name is chosen based on the remote name
  and UUID. This can be specified to pick a bucket name.

* `exporttree` - Set to "yes" to make this special remote usable
  by [[git-annex export|git-annex-export]].
  It will not be usable as a general-purpose special remote.

* `versioning` - Setting this to "yes" along with "exporttree=yes",
  allows git-annex to access old versions of files that were 
  exported to the special remote by [[git-annex export|git-annex-export]].

  Note that git-annex needs to remember S3 version IDs for files
  sent to a remote configured this way, which will make the git-annex
  branch a bit larger.

  Also note that git-annex does not support dropping content from versioned
  S3 buckets.

* `public` - Set to "yes" to allow public read access to files sent
  to the S3 remote. This is accomplished by setting an ACL when each 
  file is uploaded to the remote. So, changes to this setting will
  only affect subseqent uploads.

* `publicurl` - Configure the URL that is used to download files
  from the bucket. Using this in combination with public=yes allows
  git-annex to download files from the S3 remote without needing to
  know the S3 credentials.

* `partsize` - Amazon S3 only accepts uploads up to a certian file size,
  and storing larger files requires a multipart upload process.

  Setting `partsize=1GiB` is recommended for Amazon S3 when not using
  chunking; this will cause multipart uploads to be done using parts
  up to 1GiB in size. Note that setting partsize to less than 100MiB
  will cause Amazon S3 to reject uploads.

  This is not enabled by default, since other S3 implementations may
  not support multipart uploads or have different limits,
  but can be enabled or changed at any time.

* `fileprefix` - By default, git-annex places files in a tree rooted at the
  top of the S3 bucket. When this is set, it's prefixed to the filenames
  used. For example, you could set it to "foo/" in one special remote,
  and to "bar/" in another special remote, and both special remotes could
  then use the same bucket.

* `x-amz-meta-*` are passed through as http headers when storing keys
  in S3. see [the Internet Archive S3 interface documentation](https://archive.org/help/abouts3.txt) for example headers.