Base64 encoding from Node and openssl library produce different output

Question

Why do the following produce different outputs?

1. OpenSSL command line

echo Chris | openssl base64
# Q2hyaXMK

2. Node.js

new Buffer('Chris').toString('base64')
// Q2hyaXM=

I'm trying to use the passport-http library for Basic authentication, and it appears to be expecting encoded data in the format of #1. This is a problem for me as all my tests rely on Node for generating encoded data (mocha, supertest).

Answer 1

The difference is that the echo command appends a newline character (\n) at the end of its output.

In other words, the Base64 encoding for Chris is indeed Q2hyaXM=, but the representation of Chris\n (where \n is just a newline character) is Q2hyaXMK.

You might want to compare with:

new Buffer('Chris\n')

... or better yet, we can find in the manual entry for echo that:

Options:
  -n    do not append a newline

So, simply using:

echo -n Chris | openssl base64
#    ^^

Would output Q2hyaXM= as expected!