docs: address proselint nits

- avoid exclamation marks
- use consistent number of spaces after periods: one
- avoid clichés
- avoid using 'very'

Closes #8060

README.md

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ by reading [the INSTALL document](https://curl.se/docs/install.html).
 
 libcurl is the library curl is using to do its job. It is readily available to
 be used by your software. Read [the libcurl.3 man
-page](https://curl.se/libcurl/c/libcurl.html) to learn how!
+page](https://curl.se/libcurl/c/libcurl.html) to learn how.
 
 You can find answers to the most frequent questions we get in [the FAQ
 document](https://curl.se/docs/faq.html).
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ downloads.
 
 ## Git
 
-To download the very latest source from the Git server do this:
+To download the latest source from the Git server do this:
 
     git clone https://github.com/curl/curl.git
 

docs/BUGS.md

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
  a go at a solution. You can optionally also submit your problem in [curl's
  bug tracking system](https://github.com/curl/curl/issues).
 
- Please read the rest of this document below first before doing that!
+ Please read the rest of this document below first before doing that.
 
  If you feel you need to ask around first, find a suitable [mailing list](
  https://curl.se/mail/) and post your questions there.
@@ -66,9 +66,9 @@
  `--trace` options.
 
  If curl crashed, causing a core dump (in unix), there is hardly any use to
- send that huge file to anyone of us. Unless we have an exact same system
- setup as you, we cannot do much with it. Instead, we ask you to get a stack
- trace and send that (much smaller) output to us instead!
+ send that huge file to anyone of us. Unless we have the same system setup as
+ you, we cannot do much with it. Instead, we ask you to get a stack trace and
+ send that (much smaller) output to us instead.
 
  The address and how to subscribe to the mailing lists are detailed in the
  `MANUAL.md` file.
@@ -102,9 +102,9 @@
  it out of an ambition to keep curl and libcurl excellent products and out of
  pride.
 
- But please do not assume that you can just lump over something to us and it
- will then magically be fixed after some given time. Most often we need
- feedback and help to understand what you have experienced and how to repeat a
+ Please do not assume that you can just lump over something to us and it will
+ then magically be fixed after some given time. Most often we need feedback
+ and help to understand what you have experienced and how to repeat a
  problem. Then we may only be able to assist YOU to debug the problem and to
  track down the proper fix.
 
@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@
  If the problem have not been understood or reproduced, and there's nobody
  responding to follow-up questions or questions asking for clarifications or
  for discussing possible ways to move forward with the task, we take that as a
- strong suggestion that the bug is not important.
+ strong suggestion that the bug is unimportant.
 
  Unimportant issues will be closed as inactive sooner or later as they cannot
  be fixed. The inactivity period (waiting for responses) should not be shorter

docs/CHECKSRC.md

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ warnings are:
    more appropriate `char *name` style. The asterisk should sit right next to
    the name without a space in between.
 
-- `BADCOMMAND`: There's a bad !checksrc! instruction in the code. See the
+- `BADCOMMAND`: There's a bad `!checksrc!` instruction in the code. See the
    **Ignore certain warnings** section below for details.
 
 - `BANNEDFUNC`: A banned function was used. The functions sprintf, vsprintf,

docs/CONTRIBUTE.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ flaws or bugs.
 
 Skip over to [https://curl.se/mail/](https://curl.se/mail/) and join
 the appropriate mailing list(s). Read up on details before you post
-questions. Read this file before you start sending patches! We prefer
+questions. Read this file before you start sending patches. We prefer
 questions sent to and discussions being held on the mailing list(s), not sent
 to individuals.
 
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ By submitting a patch to the curl project, you are assumed to have the right
 to the code and to be allowed by your employer or whatever to hand over that
 patch/code to us. We will credit you for your changes as far as possible, to
 give credit but also to keep a trace back to who made what changes. Please
-always provide us with your full real name when contributing!
+always provide us with your full real name when contributing,
 
 ### What To Read
 
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ and regression in the future.
 Please try to get the latest available sources to make your patches against.
 It makes the lives of the developers so much easier. The best is if you get
 the most up-to-date sources from the git repository, but the latest release
-archive is quite OK as well!
+archive is quite OK as well.
 
 ### Documentation
 

docs/DYNBUF.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # dynbuf
 
 This is the internal module for creating and handling "dynamic buffers". This
-means buffers that can be appended to, dynamically and grow in size to adapt.
+means buffers that can be appended to, dynamically and grow to adapt.
 
 There will always be a terminating zero put at the end of the dynamic buffer.
 

docs/ECH.md

@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ functionality or to favour any particular TLS-providing backend. Specifically,
 the change reserves a feature bit for ECH support (symbol
 `CURL_VERSION_ECH`), implements setting and reporting of this bit, includes
 dummy book-keeping for the symbol, adds a build-time configuration option
-(`--enable-ech`), provides an extensible check for resources available to
+(`--enable-ech`), provides an extendable check for resources available to
 provide ECH support, and defines a compiler pre-processor symbol (`USE_ECH`)
 accordingly.
 
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ Limitations:
 
 -   Framework is incomplete, as it covers autoconf, but not CMake.
 
--   Check for available resources, although extensible, refers only to
+-   Check for available resources, although extendable, refers only to
     specific work in progress ([described
     here](https://github.com/sftcd/openssl/tree/master/esnistuff)) to
     implement ECH for OpenSSL, as this is the immediate motivation

docs/GOVERNANCE.md

@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ When you are merging patches/PRs...
   necessary
 - avoid the "merge" button on GitHub, do it "manually" instead to get full
   control and full audit trail (github leaves out you as "Committer:")
-- remember to credit the reporter and the helpers!
+- remember to credit the reporter and the helpers.
 
 ## Who are maintainers?
 

docs/HELP-US.md

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ even maybe not a terribly experienced developer, here's our advice:
  - Read through this document to get a grasp on a general approach to use
  - Consider adding a test case for something not currently tested (correctly)
  - Consider updating or adding documentation
- - One way to get your feet wet gently in the project, is to participate in an
+ - One way to get started gently in the project, is to participate in an
    existing issue/PR and help out by reproducing the issue, review the code in
    the PR etc.
 

docs/INSTALL.md

@@ -396,7 +396,7 @@ enabled, you will get messages like:
 getaddrinfo() thread failed to start
 ```
 
-Do not panic! curl and your program are not broken. You can fix this by:
+Do not panic. curl and your program are not broken. You can fix this by:
 
 - Set the environment variable `QIBM_MULTI_THREADED` to `Y` before starting
   your program. This can be done at whatever scope you feel is appropriate.

docs/INTERNALS.md

@@ -165,10 +165,10 @@ Windows vs Unix
  `#ifdef HAVE_THAT_WEIRD_FUNCTION`. Since Windows cannot run configure scripts,
  we maintain a `curl_config-win32.h` file in lib directory that is supposed to
  look exactly like a `curl_config.h` file would have looked like on a Windows
- machine!
+ machine.
 
  Generally speaking: always remember that this will be compiled on dozens of
- operating systems. Do not walk on the edge!
+ operating systems. Do not walk on the edge.
 
 <a name="Library"></a>
 Library
@@ -797,7 +797,7 @@ Track Down Memory Leaks
     tests/memanalyze.pl dump
 
   This now outputs a report on what resources that were allocated but never
-  freed etc. This report is fine for posting to the list!
+  freed etc. This report is fine for posting to the list.
 
   If this does not produce any output, no leak was detected in libcurl. Then
   the leak is mostly likely to be in your code.

docs/MANUAL.md

@@ -373,7 +373,7 @@ allow a user to trick curl into uploading a file.
 ## Referrer
 
 An HTTP request has the option to include information about which address
-referred it to the actual page.  Curl allows you to specify the referrer to be
+referred it to the actual page. curl allows you to specify the referrer to be
 used on the command line. It is especially useful to fool or trick stupid
 servers or CGI scripts that rely on that information being available or
 contain certain data.
@@ -608,7 +608,7 @@ directory at your ftp site, do:
 
     curl ftp://user:passwd@my.site.com/README
 
-But if you want the README file from the root directory of that same site, you
+If you want the README file from the root directory of that same site, you
 need to specify the absolute file name:
 
     curl ftp://user:passwd@my.site.com//README

docs/NEW-PROTOCOL.md

@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ that supporting this protocol is a grand idea.
 curl is not here for your protocol. Your protocol is not here for curl. The
 best cooperation and end result occur when all involved parties mutually see
 and agree that supporting this protocol in curl would be good for everyone.
-Heck, for the world!
+Heck, for the world.
 
 Consider "selling us" the idea that we need an implementation merged in curl,
 to be fairly important. *Why* do we want curl to support this new protocol?
@@ -90,8 +90,8 @@ protocol - but it might require a bit of an effort to make it happen.
 
 ## Documentation
 
-We cannot assume that users are particularly familiar with specific details
-and peculiarities of the protocol. It needs documentation.
+We cannot assume that users are particularly familiar with details and
+peculiarities of the protocol. It needs documentation.
 
 Maybe it even needs some internal documentation so that the developers who
 will try to debug something five years from now can figure out functionality a

docs/PARALLEL-TRANSFERS.md

@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ share API as well, as a context per origin + path (realm?) basically.
 
 Visible in test 153, 1412 and more.
 
-## Feedback!
+## Feedback
 
 This is early days for parallel transfer support. Keep your eyes open for
 unintended side effects or downright bugs.

docs/URL-SYNTAX.md

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ changes over time.
 URL parsers as implemented in browsers, libraries and tools usually opt to
 support one of the mentioned specifications. Bugs, differences in
 interpretations and the moving nature of the WHATWG spec does however make it
-unlikely that multiple parsers treat URLs the exact same way!
+unlikely that multiple parsers treat URLs the same way.
 
 ## Security
 

docs/cmdline-opts/curves.d

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ them with ":" (e.g.  "X25519:P-521").  The parameter is available identically
 in the "openssl s_client/s_server" utilities.
 
 --curves allows a OpenSSL powered curl to make SSL-connections with exactly
-the (EC) curve requested by the client, avoiding intransparent client/server
+the (EC) curve requested by the client, avoiding nontransparent client/server
 negotiations.
 
 If this option is set, the default curves list built into openssl will be

docs/cmdline-opts/data.d

@@ -22,9 +22,9 @@ the @ character. To post data purely binary, you should instead use the
 --data-urlencode.
 
 If any of these options is used more than once on the same command line, the
-data pieces specified will be merged together with a separating
-&-symbol. Thus, using '-d name=daniel -d skill=lousy' would generate a post
-chunk that looks like \&'name=daniel&skill=lousy'.
+data pieces specified will be merged with a separating &-symbol. Thus, using
+\&'-d name=daniel -d skill=lousy' would generate a post chunk that looks like
+\&'name=daniel&skill=lousy'.
 
 If you start the data with the letter @, the rest should be a file name to
 read the data from, or - if you want curl to read the data from stdin. Posting

docs/cmdline-opts/proxy-user.d

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ from your environment by specifying a single colon with this option: "-U :".
 On systems where it works, curl will hide the given option argument from
 process listings. This is not enough to protect credentials from possibly
 getting seen by other users on the same system as they will still be visible
-for a brief moment before cleared. Such sensitive data should be retrieved
-from a file instead or similar and never used in clear text in a command line.
+for a moment before cleared. Such sensitive data should be retrieved from a
+file instead or similar and never used in clear text in a command line.
 
 If this option is used several times, the last one will be used.

docs/cmdline-opts/proxy.d

@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ User and password that might be provided in the proxy string are URL decoded
 by curl. This allows you to pass in special characters such as @ by using %40
 or pass in a colon with %3a.
 
-The proxy host can be specified the exact same way as the proxy environment
+The proxy host can be specified the same way as the proxy environment
 variables, including the protocol prefix (http://) and the embedded user +
 password.
 

docs/cmdline-opts/remote-header-name.d

@@ -19,5 +19,5 @@ There's no attempt to decode %-sequences (yet) in the provided file name, so
 this option may provide you with rather unexpected file names.
 
 **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.
+rogue server could send you the name of a DLL or other file that could be
+loaded automatically by Windows or some third party software.

docs/libcurl/curl_formadd.3

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ curl_formadd - add a section to a multipart/formdata HTTP POST
 .BI "struct curl_httppost ** " lastitem, " ...);"
 .ad
 .SH DESCRIPTION
-This function is deprecated. Do not use! See \fIcurl_mime_init(3)\fP instead!
+This function is deprecated. Do not use. See \fIcurl_mime_init(3)\fP instead.
 
 curl_formadd() is used to append sections when building a multipart/formdata
 HTTP POST (sometimes referred to as RFC2388-style posts). Append one section
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ Another possibility to send options to curl_formadd() is the
 \fBCURLFORM_ARRAY\fP option, that passes a struct curl_forms array pointer as
 its value. Each curl_forms structure element has a CURLformoption and a char
 pointer. The final element in the array must be a CURLFORM_END. All available
-options can be used in an array, except the CURLFORM_ARRAY option itself!  The
+options can be used in an array, except the CURLFORM_ARRAY option itself. The
 last argument in such an array must always be \fBCURLFORM_END\fP.
 .IP CURLFORM_CONTENTHEADER
 specifies extra headers for the form POST section. This takes a curl_slist

docs/libcurl/curl_formfree.3

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ curl_formfree - free a previously build multipart/formdata HTTP POST chain
 .BI "void curl_formfree(struct curl_httppost *" form);
 .ad
 .SH DESCRIPTION
-This function is deprecated. Do not use! See \fIcurl_mime_init(3)\fP instead!
+This function is deprecated. Do not use. See \fIcurl_mime_init(3)\fP instead!
 
 curl_formfree() is used to clean up data previously built/appended with
 \fIcurl_formadd(3)\fP. This must be called when the data has been used, which

docs/libcurl/curl_multi_setopt.3

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ set with the \fIoption\fP followed by the parameter \fIparam\fP. That
 parameter can be a \fBlong\fP, a \fBfunction pointer\fP, an \fBobject
 pointer\fP or a \fBcurl_off_t\fP type, depending on what the specific option
 expects. Read this manual carefully as bad input values may cause libcurl to
-behave badly!  You can only set one option in each function call.
+behave badly. You can only set one option in each function call.
 
 .SH OPTIONS
 .IP CURLMOPT_CHUNK_LENGTH_PENALTY_SIZE

docs/libcurl/curl_multi_socket.3

@@ -32,8 +32,8 @@ CURLMcode curl_multi_socket_all(CURLM *multi_handle,
                                 int *running_handles);
 .fi
 .SH DESCRIPTION
-These functions are deprecated. Do not use! See
-\fIcurl_multi_socket_action(3)\fP instead!
+These functions are deprecated. Do not use. See
+\fIcurl_multi_socket_action(3)\fP instead.
 
 At return, the integer \fBrunning_handles\fP points to will contain the number
 of still running easy handles within the multi handle. When this number
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ equivalent to \fIcurl_multi_socket_action(3)\fP with \fBev_bitmask\fP set to
 
 Force libcurl to (re-)check all its internal sockets and transfers instead of
 just a single one by calling \fIcurl_multi_socket_all(3)\fP. Note that there
-should not be any reason to use this function!
+should not be any reason to use this function.
 .SH CALLBACK
 The socket \fBcallback\fP function uses a prototype like this
 .nf

docs/libcurl/libcurl-errors.3

@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ nothing is considered an error.
 .IP "CURLE_SSL_ENGINE_NOTFOUND (53)"
 The specified crypto engine was not found.
 .IP "CURLE_SSL_ENGINE_SETFAILED (54)"
-Failed setting the selected SSL crypto engine as default!
+Failed setting the selected SSL crypto engine as default.
 .IP "CURLE_SEND_ERROR (55)"
 Failed sending network data.
 .IP "CURLE_RECV_ERROR (56)"

docs/libcurl/libcurl-multi.3

@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ Should you change your mind, the easy handle is again removed from the multi
 stack using \fIcurl_multi_remove_handle(3)\fP. Once removed from the multi
 handle, you can again use other easy interface functions like
 \fIcurl_easy_perform(3)\fP on the handle or whatever you think is
-necessary. You can remove handles at any point in time during transfers.
+necessary. You can remove handles at any point during transfers.
 
 Adding the easy handle to the multi handle does not start the transfer.
 Remember that one of the main ideas with this interface is to let your

docs/libcurl/libcurl-security.3

@@ -35,8 +35,8 @@ Many applications are used in closed networks where users and servers can
 (possibly) be trusted, but many others are used on arbitrary servers and are
 fed input from potentially untrusted users. Following is a discussion about
 some risks in the ways in which applications commonly use libcurl and
-potential mitigations of those risks. It is by no means comprehensive, but
-shows classes of attacks that robust applications should consider. The Common
+potential mitigations of those risks. It is not comprehensive, but shows
+classes of attacks that robust applications should consider. The Common
 Weakness Enumeration project at https://cwe.mitre.org/ is a good reference for
 many of these and similar types of weaknesses of which application writers
 should be aware.
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ automatically to frequently visited sites. The file contains passwords in
 clear text and is a real security risk. In some cases, your .netrc is also
 stored in a home directory that is NFS mounted or used on another network
 based file system, so the clear text password will fly through your network
-every time anyone reads that file!
+every time anyone reads that file.
 
 For applications that enable .netrc use, a user who manage to set the right
 URL might then be possible to pass on passwords.
@@ -106,11 +106,10 @@ the user (as would happen in some kinds of CGI scripts), an attacker could
 leverage this to read otherwise forbidden data (e.g.
 file://localhost/etc/passwd).
 
-If authentication credentials are stored in the ~/.netrc file, or Kerberos
-is in use, any other URL type (not just file:) that requires
-authentication is also at risk.  A redirect such as
-ftp://some-internal-server/private-file would then return data even when
-the server is password protected.
+If authentication credentials are stored in the ~/.netrc file, or Kerberos is
+in use, any other URL type (not just file:) that requires authentication is
+also at risk. A redirect such as ftp://some-internal-server/private-file would
+then return data even when the server is password protected.
 
 In the same way, if an unencrypted SSH private key has been configured for the
 user running the libcurl application, SCP: or SFTP: URLs could access password
@@ -174,9 +173,9 @@ as IPv4 addresses. That means that a sanitizing function that filters out
 addresses like 127.0.0.1 is not sufficient--the equivalent IPv6 addresses ::1,
 ::, 0:00::0:1, ::127.0.0.1 and ::ffff:7f00:1 supplied somehow by an attacker
 would all bypass a naive filter and could allow access to undesired local
-resources.  IPv6 also has special address blocks like link-local and
-site-local that generally should not be accessed by a server-side libcurl-using
-application.  A poorly-configured firewall installed in a data center,
+resources. IPv6 also has special address blocks like link-local and site-local
+that generally should not be accessed by a server-side libcurl-using
+application. A poorly configured firewall installed in a data center,
 organization or server may also be configured to limit IPv4 connections but
 leave IPv6 connections wide open. In some cases, setting
 \fICURLOPT_IPRESOLVE(3)\fP to CURL_IPRESOLVE_V4 can be used to limit resolved
@@ -301,7 +300,7 @@ right one.
 A malicious FTP server can respond to PASV commands with the IP+PORT of a
 totally different machine. Perhaps even a third party host, and when there are
 many clients trying to connect to that third party, it could create a
-Distributed Denial-Of-Service attack out of it! If the client makes an upload
+Distributed Denial-Of-Service attack out of it. If the client makes an upload
 operation, it can make the client send the data to another site. If the
 attacker can affect what data the client uploads, it can be made to work as a
 HTTP request and then the client could be made to issue HTTP requests to third

docs/libcurl/libcurl-tutorial.3

@@ -236,8 +236,8 @@ commands and receive the transfer. Whenever it receives data, it calls the
 callback function we previously set. The function may get one byte at a time,
 or it may get many kilobytes at once. libcurl delivers as much as possible as
 often as possible. Your callback function should return the number of bytes it
-\&"took care of". If that is not the exact same amount of bytes that was
-passed to it, libcurl will abort the operation and return with an error code.
+\&"took care of". If that is not the same amount of bytes that was passed to
+it, libcurl will abort the operation and return with an error code.
 
 When the transfer is complete, the function returns a return code that informs
 you if it succeeded in its mission or not. If a return code is not enough for
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ a better understanding why the server behaves the way it does. Include headers
 in the normal body output with \fICURLOPT_HEADER(3)\fP set 1.
 
 Of course, there are bugs left. We need to know about them to be able to fix
-them, so we are quite dependent on your bug reports! When you do report
+them, so we are quite dependent on your bug reports. When you do report
 suspected bugs in libcurl, please include as many details as you possibly can:
 a protocol dump that \fICURLOPT_VERBOSE(3)\fP produces, library version, as
 much as possible of your code that uses libcurl, operating system name and
@@ -1320,7 +1320,7 @@ ones at any time), you start the transfers by calling
 \fIcurl_multi_perform(3)\fP.
 
 \fIcurl_multi_perform(3)\fP is asynchronous. It will only perform what can be
-done now and then return back control to your program. It is designed to never
+done now and then return control to your program. It is designed to never
 block. You need to keep calling the function until all transfers are
 completed.
 

docs/libcurl/libcurl.3

@@ -33,10 +33,9 @@ There are many bindings available that bring libcurl access to your favourite
 language. Look elsewhere for documentation on those.
 
 libcurl has a global constant environment that you must set up and maintain
-while using libcurl.  This essentially means you call
-\fIcurl_global_init(3)\fP at the start of your program and
-\fIcurl_global_cleanup(3)\fP at the end.  See \fBGLOBAL CONSTANTS\fP below for
-details.
+while using libcurl. This essentially means you call \fIcurl_global_init(3)\fP
+at the start of your program and \fIcurl_global_cleanup(3)\fP at the end. See
+\fBGLOBAL CONSTANTS\fP below for details.
 
 If libcurl was compiled with support for multiple SSL backends, the function
 \fIcurl_global_sslset(3)\fP can be called before \fIcurl_global_init(3)\fP
@@ -186,11 +185,11 @@ run at the start and end of the whole program.
 A module like this must have global constant functions of its own, just like
 \fIcurl_global_init(3)\fP and \fIcurl_global_cleanup(3)\fP. The module thus
 has control at the beginning and end of the program and has a place to call
-the libcurl functions.  Note that if multiple modules in the program use
-libcurl, they all will separately call the libcurl functions, and that is OK
-because only the first \fIcurl_global_init(3)\fP and the last
-\fIcurl_global_cleanup(3)\fP in a program change anything.  (libcurl uses a
-reference count in static memory).
+the libcurl functions. If multiple modules in the program use libcurl, they
+all will separately call the libcurl functions, and that is OK because only
+the first \fIcurl_global_init(3)\fP and the last \fIcurl_global_cleanup(3)\fP
+in a program change anything. (libcurl uses a reference count in static
+memory).
 
 In a C++ module, it is common to deal with the global constant situation by
 defining a special class that represents the global constant environment of
@@ -223,7 +222,7 @@ without you having to worry about the global constant environment at all:
 yet. The resources it acquires to do so get released by the operating system
 automatically when the program exits.
 
-This failsafe feature exists mainly for backward compatibility because
-there was a time when the global functions did not exist.  Because it
-is sufficient only in the simplest of programs, it is not recommended
-for any program to rely on it.
+This failsafe feature exists mainly for backward compatibility because there
+was a time when the global functions did not exist. Because it is sufficient
+only in the simplest of programs, it is not recommended for any program to
+rely on it.