docs/HTTP-COOKIES: converted to markdown

3 files changed, 109 insertions, 128 deletions

diff --git a/docs/HTTP-COOKIES b/docs/HTTP-COOKIES
deleted file mode 100644
index 0e43ba760..000000000
--- a/docs/HTTP-COOKIES
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,123 +0,0 @@
-Updated: July 3, 2012 (https://curl.haxx.se/docs/http-cookies.html)
-                                  _   _ ____  _
-                              ___| | | |  _ \| |
-                             / __| | | | |_) | |
-                            | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___
-                             \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
-
-
-HTTP Cookies
-
- 1. HTTP Cookies
- 1.1 Cookie overview
- 1.2 Cookies saved to disk
- 1.3 Cookies with curl the command line tool
- 1.4 Cookies with libcurl
- 1.5 Cookies with javascript
-
-==============================================================================
-
-1. HTTP Cookies
-
-  1.1 Cookie overview
-
-  HTTP cookies are pieces of 'name=contents' snippets that a server tells the
-  client to hold and then the client sends back those the server on subsequent
-  requests to the same domains/paths for which the cookies were set.
-
-  Cookies are either "session cookies" which typically are forgotten when the
-  session is over which is often translated to equal when browser quits, or
-  the cookies aren't session cookies they have expiration dates after which
-  the client will throw them away.
-
-  Cookies are set to the client with the Set-Cookie: header and are sent to
-  servers with the Cookie: header.
-
-  For a very long time, the only spec explaining how to use cookies was the
-  original Netscape spec from 1994: https://curl.haxx.se/rfc/cookie_spec.html
-
-  In 2011, RFC6265 (https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc6265.txt) was finally published
-  and details how cookies work within HTTP.
-
-  1.2 Cookies saved to disk
-
-  Netscape once created a file format for storing cookies on disk so that they
-  would survive browser restarts. curl adopted that file format to allow
-  sharing the cookies with browsers, only to see browsers move away from that
-  format. Modern browsers no longer use it, while curl still does.
-
-  The netscape cookie file format stores one cookie per physical line in the
-  file with a bunch of associated meta data, each field separated with
-  TAB. That file is called the cookiejar in curl terminology.
-
-  When libcurl saves a cookiejar, it creates a file header of its own in which
-  there is a URL mention that will link to the web version of this document.
-
-  1.3 Cookies with curl the command line tool
-
-  curl has a full cookie "engine" built in. If you just activate it, you can
-  have curl receive and send cookies exactly as mandated in the specs.
-
-  Command line options:
-
-  -b, --cookie
-
-    tell curl a file to read cookies from and start the cookie engine, or if
-    it isn't a file it will pass on the given string. -b name=var works and so
-    does -b cookiefile.
-
-  -j, --junk-session-cookies
-
-    when used in combination with -b, it will skip all "session cookies" on
-    load so as to appear to start a new cookie session.
-
-  -c, --cookie-jar
-
-    tell curl to start the cookie engine and write cookies to the given file
-    after the request(s)
-
-  1.4 Cookies with libcurl
-
-  libcurl offers several ways to enable and interface the cookie engine. These
-  options are the ones provided by the native API. libcurl bindings may offer
-  access to them using other means.
-
-  CURLOPT_COOKIE
-
-    Is used when you want to specify the exact contents of a cookie header to
-    send to the server.
-
-  CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE
-
-    Tell libcurl to activate the cookie engine, and to read the initial set of
-    cookies from the given file. Read-only.
-
-  CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR
-
-    Tell libcurl to activate the cookie engine, and when the easy handle is
-    closed save all known cookies to the given cookiejar file. Write-only.
-
-  CURLOPT_COOKIELIST
-
-    Provide detailed information about a single cookie to add to the internal
-    storage of cookies. Pass in the cookie as a HTTP header with all the
-    details set, or pass in a line from a netscape cookie file. This option
-    can also be used to flush the cookies etc.
-    
-  CURLINFO_COOKIELIST
-
-    Extract cookie information from the internal cookie storage as a linked
-    list.
-
-  1.5 Cookies with javascript
-
-  These days a lot of the web is built up by javascript. The webbrowser loads
-  complete programs that render the page you see. These javascript programs
-  can also set and access cookies.
-
-  Since curl and libcurl are plain HTTP clients without any knowledge of or
-  capability to handle javascript, such cookies will not be detected or used.
-
-  Often, if you want to mimic what a browser does on such web sites, you can
-  record web browser HTTP traffic when using such a site and then repeat the
-  cookie operations using curl or libcurl.
diff --git a/docs/HTTP-COOKIES.md b/docs/HTTP-COOKIES.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a1b283454
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/HTTP-COOKIES.md
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+# HTTP Cookies
+
+## Cookie overview
+
+  Cookies are `name=contents` pairs that a HTTP server tells the client to
+  hold and then the client sends back those to the server on subsequent
+  requests to the same domains and paths for which the cookies were set.
+
+  Cookies are either "session cookies" which typically are forgotten when the
+  session is over which is often translated to equal when browser quits, or
+  the cookies aren't session cookies they have expiration dates after which
+  the client will throw them away.
+
+  Cookies are set to the client with the Set-Cookie: header and are sent to
+  servers with the Cookie: header.
+
+  For a very long time, the only spec explaining how to use cookies was the
+  original [Netscape spec from 1994](https://curl.haxx.se/rfc/cookie_spec.html).
+
+  In 2011, [RFC6265](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc6265.txt) was finally
+  published and details how cookies work within HTTP.
+
+## Cookies saved to disk
+
+  Netscape once created a file format for storing cookies on disk so that they
+  would survive browser restarts. curl adopted that file format to allow
+  sharing the cookies with browsers, only to see browsers move away from that
+  format. Modern browsers no longer use it, while curl still does.
+
+  The netscape cookie file format stores one cookie per physical line in the
+  file with a bunch of associated meta data, each field separated with
+  TAB. That file is called the cookiejar in curl terminology.
+
+  When libcurl saves a cookiejar, it creates a file header of its own in which
+  there is a URL mention that will link to the web version of this document.
+
+## Cookies with curl the command line tool
+
+  curl has a full cookie "engine" built in. If you just activate it, you can
+  have curl receive and send cookies exactly as mandated in the specs.
+
+  Command line options:
+
+  `-b, --cookie`
+
+  tell curl a file to read cookies from and start the cookie engine, or if it
+  isn't a file it will pass on the given string. -b name=var works and so does
+  -b cookiefile.
+
+  `-j, --junk-session-cookies`
+
+  when used in combination with -b, it will skip all "session cookies" on load
+  so as to appear to start a new cookie session.
+
+  `-c, --cookie-jar`
+
+  tell curl to start the cookie engine and write cookies to the given file
+  after the request(s)
+
+## Cookies with libcurl
+
+  libcurl offers several ways to enable and interface the cookie engine. These
+  options are the ones provided by the native API. libcurl bindings may offer
+  access to them using other means.
+
+  `CURLOPT_COOKIE`
+
+  Is used when you want to specify the exact contents of a cookie header to
+  send to the server.
+
+  `CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE`
+
+  Tell libcurl to activate the cookie engine, and to read the initial set of
+  cookies from the given file. Read-only.
+
+  `CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR`
+
+  Tell libcurl to activate the cookie engine, and when the easy handle is
+  closed save all known cookies to the given cookiejar file. Write-only.
+
+  `CURLOPT_COOKIELIST`
+
+  Provide detailed information about a single cookie to add to the internal
+  storage of cookies. Pass in the cookie as a HTTP header with all the details
+  set, or pass in a line from a netscape cookie file. This option can also be
+  used to flush the cookies etc.
+
+  `CURLINFO_COOKIELIST`
+
+  Extract cookie information from the internal cookie storage as a linked
+  list.
+
+## Cookies with javascript
+
+  These days a lot of the web is built up by javascript. The webbrowser loads
+  complete programs that render the page you see. These javascript programs
+  can also set and access cookies.
+
+  Since curl and libcurl are plain HTTP clients without any knowledge of or
+  capability to handle javascript, such cookies will not be detected or used.
+
+  Often, if you want to mimic what a browser does on such web sites, you can
+  record web browser HTTP traffic when using such a site and then repeat the
+  cookie operations using curl or libcurl.
diff --git a/docs/Makefile.am b/docs/Makefile.am
index b202a5dd8..1fcc0cf9a 100644
--- a/docs/Makefile.am
+++ b/docs/Makefile.am
@@ -33,11 +33,11 @@ SUBDIRS = examples libcurl
 
 CLEANFILES = $(GENHTMLPAGES) $(PDFPAGES)
 
-EXTRA_DIST = MANUAL BUGS CONTRIBUTE FAQ FEATURES INTERNALS SSLCERTS	\
- README.win32 RESOURCES TODO TheArtOfHttpScripting THANKS VERSIONS	\
- KNOWN_BUGS BINDINGS $(man_MANS) $(HTMLPAGES) HISTORY INSTALL		\
- $(PDFPAGES) LICENSE-MIXING README.netware INSTALL.devcpp		\
- MAIL-ETIQUETTE HTTP-COOKIES SECURITY RELEASE-PROCEDURE SSL-PROBLEMS	\
+EXTRA_DIST = MANUAL BUGS CONTRIBUTE FAQ FEATURES INTERNALS SSLCERTS     \
+ README.win32 RESOURCES TODO TheArtOfHttpScripting THANKS VERSIONS      \
+ KNOWN_BUGS BINDINGS $(man_MANS) $(HTMLPAGES) HISTORY INSTALL           \
+ $(PDFPAGES) LICENSE-MIXING README.netware INSTALL.devcpp               \
+ MAIL-ETIQUETTE HTTP-COOKIES.md SECURITY RELEASE-PROCEDURE SSL-PROBLEMS \
  HTTP2.md ROADMAP.md CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md CODE_STYLE.md
 
 MAN2HTML= roffit < $< >$@