Ensure a missing target is still indicated as 'sources are newer' even when there are no sources.

Closes #284

Author: jaraco

distutils/_modified.py

@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ def missing_as_newer(source):
         return missing == 'newer' and not os.path.exists(source)
 
     ignored = os.path.exists if missing == 'ignore' else None
-    return any(
+    return not os.path.exists(target) or any(
         missing_as_newer(source) or _newer(source, target)
         for source in filter(ignored, sources)
     )

distutils/tests/test_modified.py

@@ -119,7 +119,6 @@ def test_newer_pairwise_group(groups_target):
     assert newer == ([groups_target.newer], [groups_target.target])
 
 
-@pytest.mark.xfail(reason="pypa/distutils#284")
 def test_newer_group_no_sources_no_target(tmp_path):
     """
     Consider no sources and no target "newer".