added 'scrapy edit' command

docs/topics/commands.rst

@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ Project-only commands:
 
 * :command:`crawl`
 * :command:`list`
+* :command:`edit`
 * :command:`parse`
 * :command:`genspider`
 * :command:`server`
@@ -269,6 +270,25 @@ Usage example::
     spider1
     spider2
 
+.. command:: edit
+
+edit
+----
+
+* Syntax: ``scrapy edit <spider>``
+* Requires project: *yes*
+
+Edit the given spider using the editor defined in the :setting:`EDITOR`
+setting.
+
+This command is provided only as a convenient shortcut for the most common
+case, the developer is of course free to choose any tool or IDE to write and
+debug his spiders.
+
+Usage example::
+
+    $ scrapy edit spider1
+
 .. command:: fetch
 
 fetch

docs/topics/settings.rst

@@ -451,6 +451,15 @@ The class used to detect and filter duplicate requests.
 The default (``RequestFingerprintDupeFilter``) filters based on request fingerprint
 (using ``scrapy.utils.request.request_fingerprint``) and grouping per domain.
 
+.. setting:: EDITOR
+
+EDITOR
+------
+
+The editor to use for editing spiders with the :command:`edit` command. It
+defaults to the ``EDITOR`` environment variable, if set. Otherwise, it defaults
+to ``vi`` (on Unix systems) or the IDLE editor (on Windows).
+
 .. setting:: ENCODING_ALIASES
 
 ENCODING_ALIASES

extras/scrapy_bash_completion

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ _scrapy_completion() {
     cmd=${COMP_WORDS[1]}
     cur=${COMP_WORDS[2]}
     case "$cmd" in
-        crawl)
+        crawl|edit)
             spiders=$(scrapy list 2>/dev/null) || spiders=""
             COMPREPLY=(${COMPREPLY[@]:-} $(compgen -W "$spiders" -- "$cur"))
         ;;

scrapy/commands/edit.py

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+import sys, os
+
+from scrapy.command import ScrapyCommand
+from scrapy.exceptions import UsageError
+
+class Command(ScrapyCommand):
+
+    requires_project = True
+    default_settings = {'LOG_ENABLED': False}
+
+    def syntax(self):
+        return "<spider>"
+
+    def short_desc(self):
+        return "Edit spider"
+
+    def long_desc(self):
+        return "Edit a spider using the editor defined in EDITOR setting"
+
+    def _err(self, msg):
+        sys.stderr.write(msg + os.linesep)
+        self.exitcode = 1
+
+    def run(self, args, opts):
+        if len(args) != 1:
+            raise UsageError()
+        editor = self.crawler.settings['EDITOR']
+        try:
+            spider = self.crawler.spiders.create(args[0])
+        except KeyError:
+            return self._err("Spider not found: %s" % args[0])
+
+        sfile = sys.modules[spider.__module__].__file__
+        sfile = sfile.replace('.pyc', '.py')
+        self.exitcode = os.system('%s "%s"' % (editor, sfile))

scrapy/settings/default_settings.py

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ Scrapy developers, if you add a setting here remember to:
 
 """
 
+import sys, os
 from os.path import join, abspath, dirname
 
 BOT_NAME = 'scrapybot'
@@ -82,6 +83,14 @@ DOWNLOADER_STATS = True
 
 DUPEFILTER_CLASS = 'scrapy.contrib.dupefilter.RequestFingerprintDupeFilter'
 
+try:
+    EDITOR = os.environ['EDITOR']
+except KeyError:
+    if sys.platform == 'win32':
+        EDITOR = '%s -m idlelib.idle'
+    else:
+        EDITOR = 'vi'
+
 ENCODING_ALIASES = {}
 
 ENCODING_ALIASES_BASE = {