I suspect the first example you give is correct. The newline character is the field delimiter. If you’re reading this into a structured representation (e.g., a Python dictionary) you could parse the presence of nothing between the colon and the newline as “None”, but in a text file there is no representation of “nothing” except for actually having nothing.


On Aug 6, 2014, at 7:11 PM, Rosalyn Metz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Below is a question one of my colleagues posted to digital curation, but
> I'm also posting here (because the more info the merrier).
> 
> Thanks!
> Rosy
> 
> ------------------------
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I am working for the Digital Preservation Network and our current
> specification requires that we use baggit bags.
> 
> Our current spec for bag-info.txt reads in part:
> 
> "DPN requires the presence of the following fields, although they may be
> empty.  Please note that the values of "null" and/or "nil" should not be
> used.  The colon (:) should still be present."
> 
> 
> From my reading of the baggit spec, section 2.2.2:
> 
> "A metadata element MUST consist of a label, a colon, and a value, each
> separated by optional whitespace. "
> 
> 
> 2.2.2 is for the bag-info.txt, but it seems that this is the general rule.
> 
> Question: Are values required for all? Which below is correct or both? Ex:
> 
> Source-Organization:
> 
> or
> 
> 
> Source-Organization: nil
> 
> 
> I appreciate any clarification,
> 
> Thanks
> James
> Stanford Digital Repository