Problem

You need to execute a process if a channel is empty.

Solution

Use the ifEmpty operator to emit a marker value to trigger the execution of the process.

Example

params.inputs = ''

process foo {
  debug true  
  input:
  val x
  when:
  x == 'EMPTY'

  script:
  '''
  echo hello
  ''' 
}

workflow {
  reads_ch = params.inputs
    ? Channel.fromPath(params.inputs, checkIfExists:true)
    : Channel.empty()

  reads_ch \
    | ifEmpty { 'EMPTY' } \
    | foo
}

Run it

Use the following command to run the script with an empty channel:

nextflow run nextflow-io/patterns/process-when-empty.nf

Use the following command to provide the same script some input files, which prevents the process from being executed:

nextflow run nextflow-io/patterns/process-when-empty.nf --inputs ../data/prots/\*

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