Hello, The ‘readTempRoots’ function in gc.cc has this: /* Try to acquire a write lock without blocking. This can only succeed if the owning process has died. In that case we don't care about its temporary roots. */ if (lockFile(*fd, ltWrite, false)) { printMsg(lvlError, format("removing stale temporary roots file `%1%'") % path); unlink(path.c_str()); There’s a thinko here: locking the file also succeeds when the lock is already held by the calling process. In that case, this code ends up removing the temporary root file of calling process, which is bad. Here’s a sample session: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- scheme@(guile-user)> ,use(guix) scheme@(guile-user)> (define s (open-connection)) scheme@(guile-user)> (current-build-output-port (current-error-port)) $2 = # scheme@(guile-user)> (set-build-options s #:verbosity 10) $3 = #t scheme@(guile-user)> (add-text-to-store s "foo" "bar!") acquiring global GC lock `/var/guix/gc.lock' acquiring read lock on `/var/guix/temproots/4259' acquiring write lock on `/var/guix/temproots/4259' downgrading to read lock on `/var/guix/temproots/4259' locking path `/gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo' lock acquired on `/gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo.lock' `/gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo' has hash `c756ef12a70bad10c9ac276ecd1213ea7cc3a2e6c462ba47e4f9a88756a055d0' lock released on `/gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo.lock' $4 = "/gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo" scheme@(guile-user)> (delete-paths s (list $4)) acquiring global GC lock `/var/guix/gc.lock' finding garbage collector roots... executing `/gnu/store/l99rkv2713nl53kr3gn4akinvifsx19h-guix-0.11.0-3.7ca3/libexec/guix/list-runtime-roots' to find additional roots […] reading temporary root file `/var/guix/temproots/4259' removing stale temporary roots file `/var/guix/temproots/4259' […] considering whether to delete `/gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo' | invalidating path `/gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo' | deleting `/gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo' | recursively deleting path `/gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo' | | /gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo deleting `/gnu/store/trash' recursively deleting path `/gnu/store/trash' | /gnu/store/trash deleting unused links... deleting unused link `/gnu/store/.links/1l2ml1b8ga7rwi3vlqn4wsic6z7a2c9csvi7mk4i1b8blw9fymn7' note: currently hard linking saves 6699.22 MiB $5 = ("/gnu/store/0siy93lggjw7sfdg8gsvrzafaa974h2d-foo") $6 = 4096 --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Notice the “removing stale temporary roots file” message. Eelco: shouldn’t it be changed along the lines of the attached path? Thanks, Ludo’.