docs: make gen.pl support *italic* and **bold**

Remove some nroffisms from the cmdline doc files to simplify editing,
and instead support this markdown style.

Closes #6771

21 files changed, 53 insertions, 41 deletions

diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/MANPAGE.md b/docs/cmdline-opts/MANPAGE.md
index 3a8270b03..b903bc25e 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/MANPAGE.md
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/MANPAGE.md
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
 This is the curl man page generator. It generates a single nroff man page
 output from the set of sources files in this directory.
 
-There is one source file for each supported command line option. The format is
+There is one source file for each supported command line option. The output
+gets `page-header` prepended and `page-footer` appended. The format is
 described below.
 
 ## Option files
@@ -32,13 +33,18 @@ Each file has a set of meta-data and a body of text.
 ### Body
 
 The body of the description. Only refer to options with their long form option
-version, like --verbose. The output generator will replace such with the
+version, like `--verbose`. The output generator will replace such with the
 correct markup that shows both short and long version.
 
-## Header
+Text written within `*asterisks*` will get shown using italics. Text within
+two `**asterisks**` will get shown using bold.
 
-`page-header` is the nroff formatted file that will be output before the
-generated options output for the master man page.
+## Header and footer
+
+`page-header` is the file that will be output before the generated options
+output for the master man page.
+
+`page-footer` is appended after all the individual options.
 
 ## Generate
 
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/data-urlencode.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/data-urlencode.d
index 2f2a3645b..2205f9db4 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/data-urlencode.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/data-urlencode.d
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Category: http post upload
 This posts data, similar to the other --data options with the exception
 that this performs URL-encoding.
 
-To be CGI-compliant, the <data> part should begin with a \fIname\fP followed
+To be CGI-compliant, the <data> part should begin with a *name* followed
 by a separator and a content specification. The <data> part can be passed to
 curl using one of the following syntaxes:
 .RS
@@ -29,6 +29,6 @@ URL-encode that data and pass it on in the POST.
 .IP "name@filename"
 This will make curl load data from the given file (including any newlines),
 URL-encode that data and pass it on in the POST. The name part gets an equal
-sign appended, resulting in \fIname=urlencoded-file-content\fP. Note that the
+sign appended, resulting in *name=urlencoded-file-content*. Note that the
 name is expected to be URL-encoded already.
 .RE
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/disable.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/disable.d
index 688fc0c54..d90960884 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/disable.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/disable.d
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@ Short: q
 Help: Disable .curlrc
 Category: curl
 ---
-If used as the first parameter on the command line, the \fIcurlrc\fP config
+If used as the first parameter on the command line, the *curlrc* config
 file will not be read and used. See the --config for details on the default
 config file search path.
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/dns-servers.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/dns-servers.d
index 8665426a8..0ff26636c 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/dns-servers.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/dns-servers.d
@@ -7,5 +7,5 @@ Category: dns
 ---
 Set the list of DNS servers to be used instead of the system default.
 The list of IP addresses should be separated with commas. Port numbers
-may also optionally be given as \fI:<port-number>\fP after each IP
+may also optionally be given as *:<port-number>* after each IP
 address.
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/etag-compare.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/etag-compare.d
index cd8fe4a33..c6ed39cb7 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/etag-compare.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/etag-compare.d
@@ -15,5 +15,5 @@ line with a desired ETag. An empty file is parsed as an empty ETag.
 Use the option --etag-save to first save the ETag from a response, and
 then use this option to compare using the saved ETag in a subsequent request.
 
-\fBCOMPARISON\fP: There are 2 types of comparison or ETags: Weak and Strong.
+**COMPARISON**: There are 2 types of comparison or ETags: Weak and Strong.
 This option expects, and uses a strong comparison.
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/form.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/form.d
index 3cd8dce75..2c65ddd9b 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/form.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/form.d
@@ -121,11 +121,11 @@ text file:
       -F '=)' -F '=@textfile.txt' ...  smtp://example.com
 
 Data can be encoded for transfer using encoder=. Available encodings are
-\fIbinary\fP and \fI8bit\fP that do nothing else than adding the corresponding
-Content-Transfer-Encoding header, \fI7bit\fP that only rejects 8-bit characters
-with a transfer error, \fIquoted-printable\fP and \fIbase64\fP that encodes
-data according to the corresponding schemes, limiting lines length to
-76 characters.
+*binary* and *8bit* that do nothing else than adding the corresponding
+Content-Transfer-Encoding header, *7bit* that only rejects 8-bit characters
+with a transfer error, *quoted-printable* and *base64* that encodes data
+according to the corresponding schemes, limiting lines length to 76
+characters.
 
 Example: send multipart mail with a quoted-printable text message and a
 base64 attached file:
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/gen.pl b/docs/cmdline-opts/gen.pl
index 1fe4a92c9..e651f029a 100755
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/gen.pl
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/gen.pl
@@ -63,6 +63,12 @@ sub manpageify {
 sub printdesc {
     my @desc = @_;
     for my $d (@desc) {
+        if($d !~ /^.\\"/) {
+            # **bold**
+            $d =~ s/\*\*([^ ]*)\*\*/\\fB$1\\fP/g;
+            # *italics*
+            $d =~ s/\*([^ ]*)\*/\\fI$1\\fP/g;
+        }
         # skip lines starting with space (examples)
         if($d =~ /^[^ ]/) {
             for my $k (keys %optlong) {
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/header.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/header.d
index 980467d5b..121285ae3 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/header.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/header.d
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ header with no-value then its header must be terminated with a semicolon, such
 as \-H \&"X-Custom-Header;" to send "X-Custom-Header:".
 
 curl will make sure that each header you add/replace is sent with the proper
-end-of-line marker, you should thus \fBnot\fP add that as a part of the header
+end-of-line marker, you should thus **not** add that as a part of the header
 content: do not add newlines or carriage returns, they will only mess things
 up for you.
 
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Example:
 
  curl -H "X-First-Name: Joe" http://example.com/
 
-\fBWARNING\fP: headers set with this option will be set in all requests - even
+**WARNING**: headers set with this option will be set in all requests - even
 after redirects are followed, like when told with --location. This can lead to
 the header being sent to other hosts than the original host, so sensitive
 headers should be used with caution combined with following redirects.
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/max-filesize.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/max-filesize.d
index 1f6bdc663..e1e2849fc 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/max-filesize.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/max-filesize.d
@@ -12,6 +12,6 @@ A size modifier may be used. For example, Appending 'k' or 'K' will count the
 number as kilobytes, 'm' or 'M' makes it megabytes, while 'g' or 'G' makes it
 gigabytes. Examples: 200K, 3m and 1G. (Added in 7.58.0)
 
-\fBNOTE:\fP The file size is not always known prior to download, and for such
+**NOTE**: The file size is not always known prior to download, and for such
 files this option has no effect even if the file transfer ends up being larger
 than this given limit. This concerns both FTP and HTTP transfers.
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/netrc-optional.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/netrc-optional.d
index fa92032bd..e0b59d19b 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/netrc-optional.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/netrc-optional.d
@@ -4,5 +4,5 @@ Mutexed: netrc
 See-also: netrc-file
 Category: curl
 ---
-Very similar to --netrc, but this option makes the .netrc usage \fBoptional\fP
+Very similar to --netrc, but this option makes the .netrc usage **optional**
 and not mandatory as the --netrc option does.
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/netrc.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/netrc.d
index 6aac568a6..cab3385b4 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/netrc.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/netrc.d
@@ -3,15 +3,15 @@ Short: n
 Help: Must read .netrc for user name and password
 Category: curl
 ---
-Makes curl scan the \fI.netrc\fP (\fI_netrc\fP on Windows) file in the user's
-home directory for login name and password. This is typically used for FTP on
+Makes curl scan the *.netrc* (*_netrc* on Windows) file in the user's home
+directory for login name and password. This is typically used for FTP on
 Unix. If used with HTTP, curl will enable user authentication. See
-\fInetrc(5)\fP \fIftp(1)\fP for details on the file format. Curl will not
+*netrc(5)* *ftp(1)* for details on the file format. Curl will not
 complain if that file doesn't have the right permissions (it should not be
 either world- or group-readable). The environment variable "HOME" is used to
 find the home directory.
 
-A quick and very simple example of how to setup a \fI.netrc\fP to allow curl
+A quick and very simple example of how to setup a *.netrc* to allow curl
 to FTP to the machine host.domain.com with user name \&'myself' and password
 \&'secret' should look similar to:
 
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/page-footer b/docs/cmdline-opts/page-footer
index 4ae7cad65..b101ace35 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/page-footer
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/page-footer
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ The supported proxy protocol prefixes are as follows:
 .IP "http://"
 Makes it use it as an HTTP proxy. The default if no scheme prefix is used.
 .IP "https://"
-Makes it treated as an \fBHTTPS\fP proxy.
+Makes it treated as an **HTTPS** proxy.
 .IP "socks4://"
 Makes it the equivalent of --socks4
 .IP "socks4a://"
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/page-header b/docs/cmdline-opts/page-header
index 02e73e6c9..4162d5766 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/page-header
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/page-header
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 .\" *                            | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___
 .\" *                             \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
 .\" *
-.\" * Copyright (C) 1998 - 2020, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
+.\" * Copyright (C) 1998 - 2021, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
 .\" *
 .\" * This software is licensed as described in the file COPYING, which
 .\" * you should have received as part of this distribution. The terms
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ resume, Metalink, and more. As you will see below, the number of features will
 make your head spin!
 
 curl is powered by libcurl for all transfer-related features. See
-\fIlibcurl(3)\fP for details.
+*libcurl(3)* for details.
 .SH URL
 The URL syntax is protocol-dependent. You'll find a detailed description in
 RFC 3986.
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ with "ftp." curl will assume you want to speak FTP.
 
 curl will do its best to use what you pass to it as a URL. It is not trying to
 validate it as a syntactically correct URL by any means but is instead
-\fBvery\fP liberal with what it accepts.
+**very** liberal with what it accepts.
 
 curl will attempt to re-use connections for multiple file transfers, so that
 getting many files from the same server will not do multiple connects /
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ bytes. 1M is 1048576 bytes.
 
 curl displays this data to the terminal by default, so if you invoke curl to
 do an operation and it is about to write data to the terminal, it
-\fIdisables\fP the progress meter as otherwise it would mess up the output
+*disables* the progress meter as otherwise it would mess up the output
 mixing progress meter and response data.
 
 If you want a progress meter for HTTP POST or PUT requests, you need to
@@ -192,8 +192,8 @@ Short version options that don't need any additional values can be used
 immediately next to each other, like for example you can specify all the
 options -O, -L and -v at once as -OLv.
 
-In general, all boolean options are enabled with --\fBoption\fP and yet again
-disabled with --\fBno-\fPoption. That is, you use the exact same option name
+In general, all boolean options are enabled with --**option** and yet again
+disabled with --**no-**option. That is, you use the exact same option name
 but prefix it with "no-". However, in this list we mostly only list and show
 the --option version of them. (This concept with --no options was added in
 7.19.0. Previously most options were toggled on/off on repeated use of the
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/proto-default.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/proto-default.d
index 1c2afea2c..74d3932cf 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/proto-default.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/proto-default.d
@@ -4,14 +4,14 @@ Arg: <protocol>
 Added: 7.45.0
 Category: connection curl
 ---
-Tells curl to use \fIprotocol\fP for any URL missing a scheme name.
+Tells curl to use *protocol* for any URL missing a scheme name.
 
 Example:
 
  curl --proto-default https ftp.mozilla.org
 
 An unknown or unsupported protocol causes error
-\fICURLE_UNSUPPORTED_PROTOCOL\fP (1).
+*CURLE_UNSUPPORTED_PROTOCOL* (1).
 
 This option does not change the default proxy protocol (http).
 
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/proto-redir.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/proto-redir.d
index 9a096f531..10580ad83 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/proto-redir.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/proto-redir.d
@@ -15,5 +15,5 @@ Example, allow only HTTP and HTTPS on redirect:
 By default curl will allow HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS on redirect (7.65.2).
 Older versions of curl allowed all protocols on redirect except several
 disabled for security reasons: Since 7.19.4 FILE and SCP are disabled, and
-since 7.40.0 SMB and SMBS are also disabled. Specifying \fIall\fP or \fI+all\fP
+since 7.40.0 SMB and SMBS are also disabled. Specifying *all* or *+all*
 enables all protocols on redirect, including those disabled for security.
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/proxy-header.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/proxy-header.d
index 9f1121d2f..c2b0928f9 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/proxy-header.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/proxy-header.d
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ but is for proxy communication only like in CONNECT requests when you want a
 separate header sent to the proxy to what is sent to the actual remote host.
 
 curl will make sure that each header you add/replace is sent with the proper
-end-of-line marker, you should thus \fBnot\fP add that as a part of the header
+end-of-line marker, you should thus **not** add that as a part of the header
 content: do not add newlines or carriage returns, they will only mess things
 up for you.
 
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/quote.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/quote.d
index a33ed3571..96b178cb5 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/quote.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/quote.d
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ all supported SFTP quote commands:
 .IP "atime date file"
 The atime command sets the last access time of the file named by the file
 operand. The <date expression> can be all sorts of date strings, see the
-\fIcurl_getdate(3)\fP man page for date expression details. (Added in 7.73.0)
+*curl_getdate(3)* man page for date expression details. (Added in 7.73.0)
 .IP "chgrp group file"
 The chgrp command sets the group ID of the file named by the file operand to
 the group ID specified by the group operand. The group operand is a decimal
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ The mkdir command creates the directory named by the directory_name operand.
 .IP "mtime date file"
 The mtime command sets the last modification time of the file named by the
 file operand. The <date expression> can be all sorts of date strings, see the
-\fIcurl_getdate(3)\fP man page for date expression details. (Added in 7.73.0)
+*curl_getdate(3)* man page for date expression details. (Added in 7.73.0)
 .IP "pwd"
 The pwd command returns the absolute pathname of the current working directory.
 .IP "rename source target"
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/remote-header-name.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/remote-header-name.d
index 700da69fc..325dade3f 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/remote-header-name.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/remote-header-name.d
@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@ effect.
 There's no attempt to decode %-sequences (yet) in the provided file name, so
 this option may provide you with rather unexpected file names.
 
-\fBWARNING\fP: Exercise judicious use of this option, especially on Windows. A
+**WARNING**: Exercise judicious use of this option, especially on Windows. A
 rogue server could send you the name of a DLL or other file that could possibly
 be loaded automatically by Windows or some third party software.
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/tcp-nodelay.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/tcp-nodelay.d
index f1cf644a4..90483d2e4 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/tcp-nodelay.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/tcp-nodelay.d
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ Help: Use the TCP_NODELAY option
 Added: 7.11.2
 Category: connection
 ---
-Turn on the TCP_NODELAY option. See the \fIcurl_easy_setopt(3)\fP man page for
+Turn on the TCP_NODELAY option. See the *curl_easy_setopt(3)* man page for
 details about this option.
 
 Since 7.50.2, curl sets this option by default and you need to explicitly
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/time-cond.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/time-cond.d
index f733eeb0b..0b56c6ee3 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/time-cond.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/time-cond.d
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Request a file that has been modified later than the given time and date, or
 one that has been modified before that time. The <date expression> can be all
 sorts of date strings or if it doesn't match any internal ones, it is taken as
 a filename and tries to get the modification date (mtime) from <file>
-instead. See the \fIcurl_getdate(3)\fP man pages for date expression details.
+instead. See the *curl_getdate(3)* man pages for date expression details.
 
 Start the date expression with a dash (-) to make it request for a document
 that is older than the given date/time, default is a document that is newer
diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/write-out.d b/docs/cmdline-opts/write-out.d
index 0579cae69..89ac700f6 100644
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/write-out.d
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/write-out.d
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ server. (Added in 7.15.4)
 .TP
 .B http_code
 The numerical response code that was found in the last retrieved HTTP(S) or
-FTP(s) transfer. In 7.18.2 the alias \fBresponse_code\fP was added to show the
+FTP(s) transfer. In 7.18.2 the alias **response_code** was added to show the
 same info.
 .TP
 .B http_connect
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ requested. 0 means the verification was successful. (Added in 7.52.0)
 .B redirect_url
 When an HTTP request was made without --location to follow redirects (or when
 --max-redir is met), this variable will show the actual URL a redirect
-\fIwould\fP have gone to. (Added in 7.18.2)
+*would* have gone to. (Added in 7.18.2)
 .TP
 .B referer
 The Referer: header, if there was any. (Added in 7.76.0)