Prevent Collection from adding 'rdf:nil rdf:rest rdf:nil.' triples

rdflib/collection.py

@@ -49,12 +49,16 @@ class Collection:
     True
     >>> c.index(Literal(2)) == 1
     True
+
+    The collection is immutable if ``uri`` is the empty list
+    (``http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#nil``).
     """
 
     def __init__(self, graph: Graph, uri: Node, seq: List[Node] = []):
         self.graph = graph
         self.uri = uri or BNode()
-        self += seq
+        if seq:
+            self += seq
 
     def n3(self) -> str:
         """
@@ -231,6 +235,9 @@ def append(self, item: Node) -> Collection:
 
         """
 
+        if self.uri == RDF.nil:
+            raise ValueError("Cannot append to empty list")
+
         end = self._end()
         if (end, RDF.first, None) in self.graph:
             # append new node to the end of the linked list
@@ -243,6 +250,9 @@ def append(self, item: Node) -> Collection:
         return self
 
     def __iadd__(self, other: Iterable[Node]):
+        if self.uri == RDF.nil:
+            raise ValueError("Cannot append to empty list")
+
         end = self._end()
         self.graph.remove((end, RDF.rest, None))
 

test/test_misc/test_collection.py

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 import pytest
 
-from rdflib import BNode, Graph, Literal
+from rdflib import BNode, Graph, Literal, URIRef
 from rdflib.collection import Collection
 
 
@@ -39,3 +39,14 @@ def test_scenario() -> None:
     c.clear()
 
     assert len(c) == 0
+
+
+def test_empty_list() -> None:
+    nil = URIRef("http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#nil")
+    g = Graph()
+
+    c = Collection(g, nil)
+
+    assert set(g) == set(), "Collection changed the graph"
+
+    assert len(c) == 0