"Data Directory" setting no longer does anything

[philrz]

Repro is with Brim commit 24bfd33.

As the verification notes at #1773 (comment) remind us, the way the Data Directory preference was used in GA Brim v0.24.0 and older, it effectively held a directory per Space that had been created while that setting was in effect. However the setting still remains in newer Brim releases where Spaces are no longer supported. This leads to the effect shown in the attached video where a user can set it, import new data, and the directory is not actually used at all.

Repro.mp4

I suppose the config variable attached to this setting needs to exist long enough for the newer app to successfully migrate the user's legacy Space data. However, since it doesn't seem to do anything anymore, it also seems like we need a plan to sunset the setting in Preferences so it doesn't confuse users.

[jameskerr]

We can remove the UI for this setting easily before we release next.

[philrz]

Verified in .Brim commit ec5da6b on macOS via beta build https://storage.googleapis.com/brimsec-releases/brim/v0.25.0-prerelease-ec5da6bb.0/macos/Brim-0.25.0-prerelease-ec5da6bb.0.dmg.

While the removal of the config option from the Preferences is simple enough to witness, I wanted to make doubly sure that the Space migration for data in a custom Data Directory still worked fine after this change. To prepare for that, as shown in the attached video, I started with a GA v0.24.0 environment in which I imported one pcap at the default settings (such that the Space data landed under ~/Library/Application Support/Brim/data/spaces on macOS) and then changed the Data Directory setting in Preferences to ~/datadir and imported another pcap.

Import.mp4

At this point I closed the app and updated to the ec5da6b build. As shown in the attached video, accepting the Migration prompt upon launch, the data for both Spaces is successfully migrated and the custom Data Directory is empty as expected. The ~/Library/Application Support/Brim/data/lake directory reflects the two expected Pools now in the Zed Lake, and the Preferences menu no longer shows the Data Directory setting.

Verify.mp4

Thanks @jameskerr!