`basic-auth` v3 - Proposal

[Phillip9587]

This issue proposes a major release for the basic-auth library, introducing breaking changes and improvements.

• chore: remove node < 18 #66
• deps: remove safe-buffer #67
• feat: add support for fetch API Request interface #68
• Disallow control characters in user-id and password to be RFC-compliant. #55
• Proposal: Integrate TypeScript Definitions into basic-auth #69

[blakeembrey]

A few notes on what we could do:

1. Use TypeScript instead of separate types, publish them together.
2. I don't think we should add fetch support but instead just decouple from the HTTP interface entirely.
3. Remove buffer entirely so it can be used in any environment

Related but not a major is doing performance optimization. Both the base64 conversion (str -> buffer -> str) and removing regex checks could provide some speed improvements when also considering the proper RFC compliance.

[Phillip9587]

Hey @blakeembrey , I just cycled back to this.

After reviewing your feedback, I decided to start with a TypeScript rewrite of the current codebase in #93 as you suggested, and then apply the other changes incrementally.

Planned follow-ups after the TS rewrite is merged:

1. Remove the default method accepting Node.js IncomingMessage. I think we should only expose a parse and a format method.
2. Add benchmarks for parse.
3. Remove Node.js Buffer and use Uint8Array.fromBase64() (with fallback if not available).
4. Add a format method (similar to feat: add auth.format for formatting credentials #65) with proper input validation, using Uint8Array.toBase64() where available (with fallback).
5. Add benchmarks for format.
6. Replace regexes if it improves performance.
7. Disallow control characters in user-id and password to be RFC-compliant. #55
8. ESM dual bundle.

[blakeembrey]

Just a quick heads up that I'll be unavailable for the next two weeks but I took a quick look at the PRs and it seems like it's great work, thanks!

[Phillip9587]

Hey @blakeembrey, hope you had a great time off! When you’re ready, it would be great to get #93 reviewed and merged so I can start applying the follow-up changes.