Tip: Recommended to use github.com/globalsign/mgo instead of gopkg.in/mgo.v2 (the latter is not maintained anymore).
The mgo.GridFile type implements io.Reader, so you could use io.Copy() to copy its content into the http.ResponseWriter.
But since mgo.GridFile also implements io.Seeker, you may take advantage of http.ServeContent(). Quoting its doc:
The main benefit of ServeContent over io.Copy is that it handles Range requests properly, sets the MIME type, and handles If-Match, If-Unmodified-Since, If-None-Match, If-Modified-Since, and If-Range requests.
Example handler serving a file:
func serveFromDB(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
var gridfs *mgo.GridFS // Obtain GridFS via Database.GridFS(prefix)
name := "somefile.pdf"
f, err := gridfs.Open(name)
if err != nil {
log.Printf("Failed to open %s: %v", name, err)
http.Error(w, "something went wrong", http.StatusInternalServerError)
return
}
defer f.Close()
http.ServeContent(w, r, name, time.Now(), f) // Use proper last mod time
}