Hi, 
Here are the results for the commands 

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- 
$ guix time-machine -C channels.scm 
/home/tmathieu/.cache/guix/inferiors/elqniarazslbnlsqgu5nzml2vwde7yks6hrdogagjslnewegsksq
 

$ inferior=$(guix time-machine -C channels.scm) 

$ guix gc --referrers $inferior 
/gnu/store/0y5pd6dyzh2bf0xghp35pnhhpzp6fl39-fonts-dir.drv 
/gnu/store/3gk1ws5cd7lzsszb5rj7j4nf0z6z1pm2-fonts-dir.drv 
/gnu/store/7zmlq7qmywdl24s105br56hj569cfwwl-info-dir.drv 
/gnu/store/9g6y370dkbqyyw0lyikzn2q8skrrkfl3-info-dir.drv 
/gnu/store/9m9qslk48lv5pa36hk9n46xxnz3yw2jz-profile.drv 
/gnu/store/hj26a084miccwi8aqv9d5y69knhjf9bj-profile 
/gnu/store/hn1y38cm14s3symhqa6gwsx9ncc49x62-ca-certificate-bundle.drv 
/gnu/store/knk5z194masymyhca9g9qwq8j2x50kbz-emacs-subdirs.drv 
/gnu/store/nw6nys0kg8118kxc9ks19n4zq2zpc0d0-profile 
/gnu/store/pg632gs7n6nfdysajxkg4238g7341myl-ca-certificate-bundle.drv 
/gnu/store/pq8fd6pawkb5w96nk2wkdknh9m943ass-profile.drv 
/gnu/store/r9imsxsryg3lsh52p8f7bjrzp5hx154i-profile 
/gnu/store/x61l4cvp38mp179cafnlb4hh1mz7y3ds-emacs-subdirs.drv 

$ profile=$(guix gc --referrers $inferior) 
$ guix gc --references $profile 
guix gc: erreur : path 
`/gnu/store/0y5pd6dyzh2bf0xghp35pnhhpzp6fl39-fonts-dir.drv 
' is not valid 

--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- 

So here I seem to get an error, some part of the profile is not valid. 
Although, I checked, the file 
/gnu/store/0y5pd6dyzh2bf0xghp35pnhhpzp6fl39-fonts-dir.drv does exists. Anyway, 
I still did the other commands. 

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- 
$ rm $inferior 
$ guix gc -D $(guix gc --references $profile) 
guix gc: erreur : path 
`/gnu/store/0y5pd6dyzh2bf0xghp35pnhhpzp6fl39-fonts-dir.drv 
' is not valid 
finding garbage collector roots... 
removing stale link from 
`/var/guix/gcroots/auto/sxc37vy2iwcacmfv9cjwm6y2zx4yvfwi' to 
`/home/tmathieu/.cache/guix/inferiors/elqniarazslbnlsqgu5nzml2vwde7yks6hrdogagjslnewegsksq'
 
deleting `/gnu/store/trash' 
deleting unused links... 
note: currently hard linking saves 91026.97 MiB 

$ guix time-machine -C channels.scm 
<<<< I cut here a lot of substitute downloads >>> 
/home/tmathieu/.cache/guix/inferiors/elqniarazslbnlsqgu5nzml2vwde7yks6hrdogagjslnewegsksq
 

$ guix gc --references \ 
$(guix gc --referrers \ 
$(guix time-machine -C channels.scm)) 
/gnu/store/5zad9v0icvp9l9iadfyxwcycik43x8pm-guile-bytestructures-1.0.10.drv 
/gnu/store/6a152xj4s049kpj8cznqpkpgsliywm1v-guile-git-0.10.0.drv 
<<< I cut here, this list a bunch of drv files in the store >>> 
/gnu/store/w743nnyv96h2sam8z31rx5vjrlnw3c4f-guile-3.0.9.drv 
/gnu/store/ylbxll2lv660b27jmd1jivq9b8k1wbj1-guile-semver-0.1.1.drv 

$ guix time-machine -C channels.scm -- build python-jax -n --no-grafts 
guix-science/build-system/bazel.scm:104:45: In procedure bazel-vendored-inputs: 
erreur : nss-certs : variable non liée 
conseil : Auriez-vous oublié `(use-modules (gnu packages certs))' ? 

$ guix time-machine -C channels.scm -- build python-jax -d --no-grafts 
guix-science/build-system/bazel.scm:104:45: In procedure bazel-vendored-inputs: 
erreur : nss-certs : variable non liée 
conseil : Auriez-vous oublié `(use-modules (gnu packages certs))' ? 
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- 

So here it is. the cache cleaning does not seem to change things, although 
there was a small error on the way I don't know if it is important. 

> The command 

> $ guix gc -D $(guix gc --references $profile) 

> was to avoid the removal of all the others “dead” items. Maybe you wanted to 
> keep some… Too late, oops, sorry. :-) But the ones we would like to clean are 
> still there I guess before the `rm` line above. 

No worries, I knew what guix gc did, and it is not too bad to do a good spring 
cleaning once in a while :). 

And I am using guix on top of a foreign linux (Arch Linux). Now that you 
mention it, just for sanity check, I just did a `sudo -i guix pull` plus 
restart guix-daemon service because my root guix was a bit old and in case it 
had any impact. It did not change anything though. 

Best, 
Timothée 

> De: "Simon Tournier" <[email protected]>
> À: "Timothee Mathieu" <[email protected]>
> Cc: "help-guix" <[email protected]>, "Julien Teigny" <[email protected]>
> Envoyé: Lundi 25 Août 2025 21:59:42
> Objet: Re: guix time machine with channels that fail to compile

> Hi,

> On Mon, 25 Aug 2025 at 21:07, Timothee Mathieu < [
> mailto:[email protected] | [email protected] ] > wrote:

> > $ guix time-machine -C channels.scm -- show nss-certs | grep location
> > location: gnu/packages/certs.scm:131:2

> I do know understand how these both...

> > guix-science/build-system/bazel.scm:104:45: In procedure 
> > bazel-vendored-inputs:
> > erreur : nss-certs : variable non liée
> > conseil : Auriez-vous oublié `(use-modules (gnu packages certs))' ?

> ...are possible.

> > For the other commands,

> > $ guix gc --referrers $inferior

> > Returns nothing

> Ahah!! Sorry my bad. Oop copy paste… It was missing:

> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> $ guix time-machine -C channels.scm
> /home/simon/.cache/guix/inferiors/elqniarazslbnlsqgu5nzml2vwde7yks6hrdogagjslnewegsksq

> $ inferior=$(guix time-machine -C channels.scm)
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

> Ok, then let get the associated profile:

> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> $ guix gc --referrers $inferior
> /gnu/store/nw6nys0kg8118kxc9ks19n4zq2zpc0d0-profile

> $ profile=$(guix gc --referrers $inferior)
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

> And let list the references of this profile:

> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> $ guix gc --references $profile
> /gnu/store/30j7azqpy63m251nr887g748w18cki6r-guix-science
> /gnu/store/asljmlgl7c2lw710vvv7n490i5lnw0xk-info-dir
> /gnu/store/mzdzf2fqzafx25vwssgpwpjp6x9ga3br-emacs-subdirs
> /gnu/store/nw6nys0kg8118kxc9ks19n4zq2zpc0d0-profile
> /gnu/store/nxg5z5g7fh1c5vcrzv6d53xnaxxxnz2v-guix-52d82e555
> /gnu/store/wpdq87d6azndvb94cfigsfbh2ph7j9aj-guix-package-cache
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

> Could you provide all the outputs?

> Then let remove what retains the cache:

> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> $ rm $inferior
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

> Then when you run “guix gc” it will delete these “dead” items.

> The command

> $ guix gc -D $(guix gc --references $profile)

> was to avoid the removal of all the others “dead” items. Maybe you wanted to
> keep some… Too late, oops, sorry. :-) But the ones we would like to clean are
> still there I guess before the `rm` line above.

> Now, the cache is cleaned. Therefore, could you run again

> guix time-machine -C channels.scm

> ? And provide the output of

> guix gc --references \
> $(guix gc --referrers \
> $(guix time-machine -C channels.scm))

> > Instead, I substituted with doing just a guix gc (which maybe I
> > should do more frequently :p).

> Well, this only clean the time-machine cache if you have not run
> recently. Which is not the case, I guess. Therefore, you have not
> rebuilt the local cache associated to the time-machine. (You have
> cleaned all the “dead” store items but the time-machine at hand was
> supposed to be “dead”; see above :-))

> > $ guix time-machine --channels=channels.scm -- build python-jax

> Instead of that, could you provide the output of

> guix time-machine -C channels.scm -- build python-jax -n --no-grafts

> ? And the output of

> $ guix time-machine -C channels.scm -- build python-jax -d --no-grafts
> /gnu/store/m18wif1qmym296jw2pc2hsg7zrrdvbh8-python-jax-0.4.28.drv

> ?

> > Remark that I reproduced this bug on two computers.

> Weird. And I cannot reproduce. )-:

> Do you run Guix System on Guix on the top of which distro?

> Cheers,
> simon

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