[Catalyst] Plugin::Authentication overrides $c->req->user

[Daniel Westermann-Clark]

Hi,

At work we use, among other things, the value of REMOTE_USER in the
request environment to authenticate users using our single-sign on
system.  We access this via $c->req->user, which the various engines
set using the data available to them.

However, Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication->set_authenticate overrides
this value with the blessed user object in addition to setting
$c->user.  Looking at the commit logs, it looks like this has been
true since 2005 but I'm having a hard time finding a reason why.

Also, Catalyst::Request lists $c->req->user as deprecated.  If it were
to be removed, how would one access the value in an engine-agnostic
way?

-- 
Daniel Westermann-Clark