Hi, TL;DR: Removing packages makes to guix behave *totally* unexpected. guix should at least output some explanation to reduce the confusion.
I've build a vm-image using my development environment ("./pre-inst-env guix system vm-image …"). Now within the VM I have - guix 0.13.0-8.357ab93, - kdelibs4support 5.39.0, - plasma-nm 5.11.2. The installed guix differs from the one used to build the vm-image (modified commit 9ae29fc0e): The later defines some version of guix (0.13.0-8.357ab93) which will go into the vm-image. This means, the installed guix does not know the new package plasma-nm and for kdelibs4support is known 5.37 (while 5.39 is installed). Now when I try to uninstall plasma-nm (within the vm), guix starts downloading stuff. Esp. it starts with "binutils-bootstrap-0". # guix package --profile=/run/current-system/profile --remove plasma-nm I would have expected guix to simply remove the links for the package from the profile. Even for me a an somewhat experienced user this is *totally* unexpected. IMHO is crazy, since the system is running already and FMPOV there is *nothing* todo but removing some links from the profile. I would have had some (even little) acceptance for this behavior, *if* I'd removed kdelibs4support, since kdelibs4support has some other referrers, which *might* have some other effects. But for plasma-nm, this is unexpected. Whatever is happening here, guix should at least output some explanation to reduce the confusion. # guix gc --referrers /gnu/store/…-plasma-nm-5.11.2 /gnu/store/…-profile /gnu/store/…-plasma-nm-5.11.2 # guix gc --referrers /gnu/store/…-kdelibs4support-5.39.0/ /gnu/store/…-plasma-desktop-5.11.2 /gnu/store/…-kdelibs4support-5.39.0 /gnu/store/…-profile /gnu/store/…-khotkeys-5.11.2 /gnu/store/…-kdeplasma-addons-5.11.2 /gnu/store/…-plasma-nm-5.11.2 /gnu/store/…-kmenuedit-5.11.2 /gnu/store/…-plasma-workspace-5.11.2 -- Regards Hartmut Goebel | Hartmut Goebel | h.goe...@crazy-compilers.com | | www.crazy-compilers.com | compilers which you thought are impossible |