GET _cat/nodes?local is not completely local

[DaveCTurner]

The cat nodes API performs a ClusterStateAction then a NodesInfoAction. It accepts the ?local parameter and passes this to the ClusterStateAction but this parameter has no effect on the NodesInfoAction. This is surprising, because GET _cat/nodes?local looks like it might be a completely local call but in fact it still depends on every node in the cluster.

I think the ?local parameter does not make sense on this API and we should remove it.

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/es-core-features (:Core/Features/CAT APIs)

[DaveCTurner]

We discussed this as a team today and agreed to deprecate the ?local parameter to GET _cat/nodes in 7.x and remove it in 8.0.

[olegbonar]

Hi @DaveCTurner! May I work on this one? Any hints are appreciated.

[DaveCTurner]

Sure, go ahead. See e.g. #49458 for another example of how to deprecate something properly.