Zero length .dep files

[bmarkus]

Following empty .dep files are in 4.x repo:

fftw.tcz.dep
flightgear-data.tcz.dep
ftgl.tcz.dep
gc.tcz.dep
kde-wallpapers.tcz.dep
kdeartwork.tcz.dep
libfftw3f.tcz.dep
libiconv.tcz.dep
libva.tcz.dep
mobile-broadband-provider-info.tcz.dep
openslp-doc.tcz.dep
oxygen-icon-theme.tcz.dep
poedit-doc.tcz.dep
qhull.tcz.dep
raptor-doc.tcz.dep
rasqal-doc.tcz.dep
ser2net.tcz.dep
udev-lib.tcz.dep

[Rich]

Hi bmarkus
I think those empty files may actually serve a purpose. If you click on the  Size  tab in AppBrowser for those
extensions, you can tell whether or not they are installed. I recently submit an extension called  findshares.
Since it had no dependencies, I did not include a dependency file. If you click on the  Size  tab for that
extension, you get a blank page.

[bmarkus]

Hi bmarkus
I think those empty files may actually serve a purpose. If you click on the  Size  tab in AppBrowser for those
extensions, you can tell whether or not they are installed. I recently submit an extension called  findshares.
Since it had no dependencies, I did not include a dependency file. If you click on the  Size  tab for that
extension, you get a blank page.

OK, I can't decide wheter it is a bug or a feature I havn't seen a policy to add empty .dep file to packages as a requirement. Also one can say that lack of .dep may indicate either a missing .dep by failure or a blank .dep while an empty .dep is clearly shows an intentional empty one.

Lets see the official statement

[Rich]

Hi bmarkus
I think it's a feature. I'm guessing that the reason my extension returns a blank is because the extension name is
derived by stripping  .dep  from the end of the dependency file, which doesn't exist, so nothing is found to display.

[bmarkus]

@Jason

do we have to add emprty .dep files to submitted packages when no dependencies?

[AbNoRMiS]

i think that this empty dep-files stayed after cleaning excess dependencies from them by a script
need ask to repository administrator, it seems to me i remember that someone said about this

[Jason W]

To my knowledge, extensions without dependencies simply have no dep file. 

The audit script does not presently throw up a signal when there is an empty dep file, I may add that in. 

Not to pick on Arslan in his absence, but it seems that the empty dep files mainly belong to his stuff upon a quick glance.  I imagine that his build script echoes entries into the dep files, and when there are no deps then an empty dep file is created by echoing " ", perhaps.