nodejs/express. regenerate session

Question

I have a simple nodejs/express application. To save user authentication I use:

req.session.auth = user;

but this I've found regenerate method:

req.session.regenerate(function (err) {
   req.session.auth = user;
});

My question is: should I use regenerate method or just req.session.auth = user;

Answer 1

I would lean toward the req.session.regenerate, but it depends on what you're trying to do. If you just do req.session.auth = user, then you will save the auth to the session. However, if you use regenerate, you will actually be clearing the entire session and then saving the auth.

The difference is that with the first approach, any other session variables in the current session will persist. It's up to you to figure out if that makes sense for your site, or if you would rather have the session be clean once authentication is complete.