From e5e48883b580b2fcfe8d30b301675f1f3ef3d67c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Vishal Gawade <vishalgawade311@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:49:32 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Deprecate ScrapyCommand.help() (#7633)

Co-authored-by: Vishal Gawade <vishalgw@amazon.com>
---
 scrapy/commands/__init__.py | 19 ++++++++++++----
 tests/test_commands.py      | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 60 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/scrapy/commands/__init__.py b/scrapy/commands/__init__.py
index 19b6f6681..598e8060e 100644
--- a/scrapy/commands/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/commands/__init__.py
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ from twisted.python import failure
 
 from scrapy.exceptions import ScrapyDeprecationWarning, UsageError
 from scrapy.utils.conf import arglist_to_dict, feed_process_params_from_cli
+from scrapy.utils.deprecate import method_is_overridden
+from scrapy.utils.python import global_object_name
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from collections.abc import Iterable
@@ -36,6 +38,14 @@ class ScrapyCommand(ABC):
 
     def __init__(self) -> None:
         self.settings: Settings | None = None  # set in scrapy.cmdline
+        if method_is_overridden(self.__class__, ScrapyCommand, "help"):
+            warnings.warn(
+                "The ScrapyCommand.help() method is deprecated and overriding "
+                f"it, as the {global_object_name(self.__class__)} class does, "
+                "has no effect; override long_desc() instead.",
+                ScrapyDeprecationWarning,
+                stacklevel=2,
+            )
 
     def set_crawler(self, crawler: Crawler) -> None:  # pragma: no cover
         warnings.warn(
@@ -68,10 +78,11 @@ class ScrapyCommand(ABC):
         return self.short_desc()
 
     def help(self) -> str:
-        """An extensive help for the command. It will be shown when using the
-        "help" command. It can contain newlines since no post-formatting will
-        be applied to its contents.
-        """
+        warnings.warn(
+            "ScrapyCommand.help() is deprecated, use long_desc() instead.",
+            ScrapyDeprecationWarning,
+            stacklevel=2,
+        )
         return self.long_desc()
 
     def add_options(self, parser: argparse.ArgumentParser) -> None:
diff --git a/tests/test_commands.py b/tests/test_commands.py
index 0657f393c..d7b7a9ff2 100644
--- a/tests/test_commands.py
+++ b/tests/test_commands.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import pytest
 import scrapy
 from scrapy.cmdline import _pop_command_name, _print_unknown_command_msg
 from scrapy.commands import ScrapyCommand, ScrapyHelpFormatter, view
+from scrapy.exceptions import ScrapyDeprecationWarning
 from scrapy.settings import Settings
 from scrapy.utils.reactor import _asyncio_reactor_path
 from tests.utils.cmdline import call, proc
@@ -28,6 +29,50 @@ class EmptyCommand(ScrapyCommand):
         pass
 
 
+class TestHelpDeprecation:
+    def test_calling_help_is_deprecated(self) -> None:
+        command = EmptyCommand()
+        with pytest.warns(
+            ScrapyDeprecationWarning,
+            match=r"ScrapyCommand\.help\(\) is deprecated, use long_desc\(\) instead\.",
+        ):
+            result = command.help()
+        # help() still delegates to long_desc() for backward compatibility.
+        assert result == command.long_desc()
+
+    def test_overriding_help_is_deprecated(self) -> None:
+        class HelpCommand(ScrapyCommand):
+            def short_desc(self) -> str:
+                return ""
+
+            def run(self, args: list[str], opts: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
+                pass
+
+            def help(self) -> str:
+                return "custom help"
+
+        with pytest.warns(
+            ScrapyDeprecationWarning,
+            match=r"The ScrapyCommand\.help\(\) method is deprecated and "
+            r"overriding it, as the .*HelpCommand class does, has no effect; "
+            r"override long_desc\(\) instead\.",
+        ):
+            HelpCommand()
+
+    def test_not_overriding_help_does_not_warn(self, recwarn) -> None:
+        # Commands that do not override help() must not emit the
+        # override-deprecation warning when instantiated, including subclasses
+        # several levels below ScrapyCommand (as the built-in commands are).
+        class SubCommand(EmptyCommand):
+            pass
+
+        EmptyCommand()
+        SubCommand()
+        assert not [
+            w for w in recwarn.list if issubclass(w.category, ScrapyDeprecationWarning)
+        ]
+
+
 class TestCommandSettings:
     def setup_method(self):
         self.command = EmptyCommand()