recently-updated macro doesn't return an empty result when no pages match the specified label(s)

The documentation in the notation guide for the recently-updated macro specifically states that when a labels parameter is supplied that "content associated with at least one of these will be listed" with emphasis in the documentation on the "at least one" part.

The online documentation page (http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Recently+Updated+Content+Macro) for the macro simply describes the labels parameter as "Filter content using labels".

In any case, when the recently-updated macro is used with a labels parameter that refers to a label that does not yet exist (because no page has been authored with the label), the macro falls back to producing a simple list of recently updated content regardless of label. In fact, the results listed are accompanied by a generated message that "These labels don't exist and were ignored: (label names)".

My expectation was that when no pages were found matching "at least one" of the specified labels, that no results would be listed. I had this expectation from the documentation, and also because it made sense to me that if no pages matched the labels that no results would be returned. If I wanted a simple list of recently updated content, I wouldn't have specified a labels parameter.

My use case is that I have pages in the wiki designed to list pages according to specific labels, such as

where 'foo' is the label. Once one of my users has authored a page with such a label, then the page correctly lists the one and only corresponding page. However, until a page has been authored with the label, the page misleading provides the user with a list of recent pages with that label, when in fact the listing is clearly a listing of the most recently updated pages regardless of label.

I'd love to know if this was a recognized issue, whether the documentation is considered to be in error, and whether there are any workarounds.

Best regards,

Gavin McKenzie.