Use Case

As a... Node Driver developer
I want... to ensure we aren't making implicit toString calls against Buffers
So that... the Driver continues to work in non-Node envs (like Deno)

User Experience

• Node Driver works without issues in non-Node envs, like Deno
• Avoid situation like https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/NODE-7548
• lint rule no-base-to-string is almost what we want, except the rule flags types whose toString() declaration lives on the Object interface — types that inherit Object.prototype.toString and produce [object Something]. But Uint8Array in TypeScript's lib has its own toString() declaration (not on Object), so the rule considers it fine.
• Add modified version of the no-base-to-string lint rule that checks for Uint8Array toString calls
• The tricky part for this repo: .eslintrc.json (legacy format) doesn't support inline plugins easily. We'd need either a local eslint-plugin-mongodb package in the repo, or migrate the config to the new flat config format (which supports inline plugin objects directly).
• Might be a good time to update our eslint format

Dependencies

• None

Risks/Unknowns

• We may uncover a lot of problematic cases
• We may uncover cases that we can't (easily) fix
• Eslint format upgrade may identify eslint issues

Acceptance Criteria

Implementation Requirements

• We have verified that we have no more implicit toString calls made on Buffer structure
• We have mechanisms in place to notify us (eg build break) that we have introduced an implicit toString call

Testing Requirements

• all tests are passing
• if an implicit toString is added, tests should fail

Documentation Requirements

• Mention that this type of bug is gone and non-Node envs should be better supported now

Follow Up Requirements

• None