non existant file is not returned as 'changed'

[airtonix]

README says : 'if target file does not exist, it is returned as if it had changed'

in reality this doesn't happen.

gulp.src pipeline.target.root
  .pipe plugins.newer pipeline.target.root
  .pipe plugins.rimraf()
  .pipe plugins.rev()
  .pipe gulp.dest pipeline.target.root
  .pipe plugins.rev.manifest path: 'manifest.json'
  .pipe gulp.dest path.resolve pipeline.target.root, '..'

On running this task, no file gets deleted nor hashed therefore the manifest is never created/updated.