Recently I had to remove duplicity from a profile because it doesn't support hardlinks, and something very interesting happened: === start of output === guix package --remove duplicity The following package will be removed: duplicity 0.7.11 /gnu/store/3a9ggca9cw4gv69lg8ihi1c6jx2xd92j-duplicity-0.7.11 substitute: warning: 'https_proxy' is ignored updating list of substitutes from 'https://mirror.hydra.gnu.org'... 100.0%g'... 95.2% The following derivations will be built: /gnu/store/s8a6rx3qrgpbw3mrllp2zmijxkrzzgh6-profile.drv /gnu/store/46qgf7ws2rcz260sxhxf4bh5a7a3n5ks-mkfontscale-1.1.2.drv /gnu/store/3j49ffh3v8dd9al122jfb5kvghrzjlds-module-import.drv /gnu/store/4ff02yd8i72pfw5nki15v51abdsnn9vw-module-import-compiled.drv /gnu/store/p20nk4l00zywxwbl5fkdrha5ajwc9lw2-mkfontscale-1.1.2.drv /gnu/store/z3dq9p2hrv3ihckx3b10hambla1advqq-mkfontdir-1.0.7.drv /gnu/store/n4ypy18jmpwpmc591pf80cy6aiw8igsn-fonts-dir.drv /gnu/store/a5f32zly8isws5n8jnnrqz97acf0z0qv-texinfo-6.3.drv /gnu/store/mlyxjdnwna57v4y38955p3wj67lihn7p-info-dir.drv /gnu/store/25l9jdfj56yb8na0wb1khixg1zwq94f2-module-import.drv /gnu/store/b7lrgb3dzy9d6l41ya7cy8vnf674qr6y-module-import-compiled.drv /gnu/store/275lpklrjq74dwbzlafnlb8rd2xdqvnq-ca-certificate-bundle.drv /gnu/store/3jggaks2xcmk72ykgqkl703i07mm3f4s-module-import-compiled.drv /gnu/store/5kafw17sff053kk4a80ynvza3vlf2ack-guile-2.0.12.drv /gnu/store/hknlvn5319g9pinz6f3r59qjp4b9399g-module-import.drv The following files will be downloaded: /gnu/store/i7228ph97vqbpw8v4m0xmfgnppy149vq-mkfontscale-1.1.2 /gnu/store/7cvdqkddzbcan5jxwyvsmar0h7wlckik-module-import-compiled /gnu/store/sq03gq3lhpwgbiy9k5klnqd2q8z7iwxp-module-import /gnu/store/8l77r5ikky0ghm1w9zc2pxfn80rb5n5w-mkfontdir-1.0.7 /gnu/store/j6k8xgsqrl5v1ajqh3i1wb603rzzg1jg-texinfo-6.3 /gnu/store/dn9f03l4zh3y35632sv1zppydbag3n17-libfontenc-1.1.3 Downloading https://mirror.hydra.gnu.org/nar/3qp4y2xf4ra1fmqrnpgivcc8fj1z1mkp-guile-2.0.12-debug (6.0MiB installed)... warning: 'https_proxy' is ignored guile-2.0.12-debug 1.5MiB/s 00:01 | 1.6MiB transferred Downloading https://mirror.hydra.gnu.org/nar/dn9f03l4zh3y35632sv1zppydbag3n17-libfontenc-1.1.3 (82KiB installed)... warning: 'https_proxy' is ignored libfontenc-1.1.3 4.5MiB/s 00:00 | 24KiB transferred Downloading https://mirror.hydra.gnu.org/nar/sq03gq3lhpwgbiy9k5klnqd2q8z7iwxp-module-import (928B installed)... warning: 'https_proxy' is ignored module-import 69KiB/s 00:00 | 268B transferred Downloading https://mirror.hydra.gnu.org/nar/i7228ph97vqbpw8v4m0xmfgnppy149vq-mkfontscale-1.1.2 (40KiB installed)... warning: 'https_proxy' is ignored mkfontscale-1.1.2 2.8MiB/s 00:00 | 19KiB transferred Downloading https://mirror.hydra.gnu.org/nar/7cvdqkddzbcan5jxwyvsmar0h7wlckik-module-import-compiled (82KiB installed)... warning: 'https_proxy' is ignored module-import-compiled 2.8MiB/s 00:00 | 26KiB transferred Downloading https://mirror.hydra.gnu.org/nar/8l77r5ikky0ghm1w9zc2pxfn80rb5n5w-mkfontdir-1.0.7 (4KiB installed)... warning: 'https_proxy' is ignored mkfontdir-1.0.7 896KiB/s 00:00 | 4KiB transferred Downloading https://mirror.hydra.gnu.org/nar/j6k8xgsqrl5v1ajqh3i1wb603rzzg1jg-texinfo-6.3 (8.2MiB installed)... warning: 'https_proxy' is ignored texinfo-6.3 1.2MiB/s 00:01 | 1.4MiB transferred grafting '/gnu/store/3qp4y2xf4ra1fmqrnpgivcc8fj1z1mkp-guile-2.0.12-debug' -> '/gnu/store/wlfk0g4vjb1qdicyk0p1cdhbgijm2fll-guile-2.0.12-debug'... grafting '/gnu/store/6slzn4ixcjlhy3av3biglqfli9pwxcn9-guile-2.0.12' -> '/gnu/store/vmq9sbjjwi57v4wv0ydjwl3c7h3dr6rm-guile-2.0.12'... grafting '/gnu/store/i7228ph97vqbpw8v4m0xmfgnppy149vq-mkfontscale-1.1.2' -> '/gnu/store/4v3ddshnwv8aj4gacmchyzhr01asj5n7-mkfontscale-1.1.2'... grafting '/gnu/store/8l77r5ikky0ghm1w9zc2pxfn80rb5n5w-mkfontdir-1.0.7' -> '/gnu/store/kxk2mf5wcpia9lg8sq66f8nr3kq4nxg9-mkfontdir-1.0.7'... grafting '/gnu/store/j6k8xgsqrl5v1ajqh3i1wb603rzzg1jg-texinfo-6.3' -> '/gnu/store/s5zdanc9qz915fr729a0nidma1i5xm4z-texinfo-6.3'... 6 packages in profile === end of output === I don' know why, but removing duplicity effectivly updated other packages in the profile, which most certainly isn't related to uninstalling a package. I don't know if this is how things are meant to be, but this behavior is entirely unexpected and makes no sense whatsoever to me (especially since it has literally nothing to do with uninstalling a program). If this is the intended behavior, then I think some thoughts on whether or not this violates the user's right to choose when and how they update their system is needed.