Index: moodlelib.php
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/moodle/moodle/lib/moodlelib.php,v
retrieving revision 1.960.2.81
diff -u -r1.960.2.81 moodlelib.php
--- moodlelib.php	6 Jul 2008 22:54:06 -0000	1.960.2.81
+++ moodlelib.php	7 Jul 2008 15:52:36 -0000
@@ -5566,20 +5566,27 @@
 /**
  * Returns a list of country names in the current language
  *
+ * There are three possible locations of the list to use: 1) current language, 2) parent language, 3) en_utf8.
+ * The function uses an attempt counter to pick the lang pack containing the list. Please note,
+ * simple checking of the countries.php existence is not enough as the file might be empty (MDL-12465).
+ *
+ * @param int $attempt The first (default), second or third attempt to get the list
  * @uses $CFG
  * @uses $USER
  * @return array
  */
-function get_list_of_countries() {
+function get_list_of_countries($attempt=1) {
     global $CFG, $USER;
 
     $lang = current_language();
 
-    if (!file_exists($CFG->dirroot .'/lang/'. $lang .'/countries.php') &&
-        !file_exists($CFG->dataroot.'/lang/'. $lang .'/countries.php')) {
+    if ($attempt > 1 || 
+        (!file_exists($CFG->dirroot .'/lang/'. $lang .'/countries.php') &&
+        !file_exists($CFG->dataroot.'/lang/'. $lang .'/countries.php'))) {
         if ($parentlang = get_string('parentlanguage')) {
-            if (file_exists($CFG->dirroot .'/lang/'. $parentlang .'/countries.php') ||
-                file_exists($CFG->dataroot.'/lang/'. $parentlang .'/countries.php')) {
+            if (($attempt == 2) &&
+               (file_exists($CFG->dirroot .'/lang/'. $parentlang .'/countries.php') ||
+                file_exists($CFG->dataroot.'/lang/'. $parentlang .'/countries.php'))) {
                 $lang = $parentlang;
             } else {
                 $lang = 'en_utf8';  // countries.php must exist in this pack
@@ -5748,6 +5755,8 @@
 
     if (!empty($string)) {
         asort($string);
+    } else if ($attempt < 3) {
+        return get_list_of_countries($attempt+1);
     }
 
     return $string;