diff --git a/gclient.py b/gclient.py
index b5ee7ba9cd..92c477f1d6 100755
--- a/gclient.py
+++ b/gclient.py
@@ -726,7 +726,7 @@ class Dependency(gclient_utils.WorkItem, DependencySettings):
                 deps_file, should_process, use_relative_paths, condition,
                 condition_value))
       else:
-        url = raw_url.format(**self.get_vars())
+        url = raw_url.format(**self.get_vars()) if raw_url else None
         deps_to_add.append(
             Dependency(
                 self, name, raw_url, url, None, None, self.custom_vars, None,
@@ -1883,8 +1883,8 @@ it or fix the checkout.
       if self._options.output_json:
         json_output = {
             name: {
-                'url': rev.split('@')[0],
-                'rev': rev.split('@')[1] if '@' in rev else None,
+                'url': rev.split('@')[0] if rev else None,
+                'rev': rev.split('@')[1] if rev and '@' in rev else None,
             }
             for name, rev in entries.iteritems()
         }
diff --git a/gclient_eval.py b/gclient_eval.py
index 17651a672c..92a165ff6b 100644
--- a/gclient_eval.py
+++ b/gclient_eval.py
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ _GCLIENT_DEPS_SCHEMA = _NodeDictSchema({
         _NodeDictSchema({
             # Repo and revision to check out under the path
             # (same as if no dict was used).
-            'url': basestring,
+            'url': schema.Or(None, basestring),
 
             # Optional condition string. The dep will only be processed
             # if the condition evaluates to True.
diff --git a/recipes/trigger_recipe_roller.txt b/recipes/trigger_recipe_roller.txt
index 32525cb6ae..2ef8659ef6 100644
--- a/recipes/trigger_recipe_roller.txt
+++ b/recipes/trigger_recipe_roller.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-No-op file. Edit this to kick recipes. Yep.
+No-op file. Edit this to kick recipes. Yep. Ack.
 
 This is a beginning of a story in this silly file.
diff --git a/testing_support/fake_repos.py b/testing_support/fake_repos.py
index f0e574856b..9a476a2205 100755
--- a/testing_support/fake_repos.py
+++ b/testing_support/fake_repos.py
@@ -518,6 +518,15 @@ deps = {
     'url': '/repo_4',
     'condition': 'False',
   },
+  # Entries can have a None repository, which has the effect of either:
+  # - disabling a dep checkout (e.g. in a .gclient solution to prevent checking
+  # out optional large repos, or in deps_os where some repos aren't used on some
+  # platforms)
+  # - allowing a completely local directory to be processed by gclient (handy
+  # for dealing with "custom" DEPS, like buildspecs).
+  '/repoLocal': {
+    'url': None,
+  },
   'src/repo8': '/repo_8',
 }
 deps_os ={