When reconfiguring the system with Guix, shepherd services that have auto-start? set to #f are started during reconfiguration. Per https://issues.guix.gnu.org/22039#26, services shouldn't be started by reconfigure if auto-start is #f. These services are not started on boot, which matches expected behavior. This is different from bug#42167, as this problem occurs even if the service already exists and is stopped. I created an test OS configuration to help others reproduce it, see attached. This was run on guix 931d893c550128591018587c90d2491fd66a11a4. I used openssh-service with %auto-start set to #f as well as ganeti-metad-service since both of these services are already supplied with Guix and are/can be set to auto-start?=#f. I haven't actually configured ganeti-metad-service so the service won't start successfully, but we can still see Guix attempt to start the service when it shouldn't. Below are snippets of the console output. I've attached the full versions to this email. I also attached result of building upgrade-shepherd-services.scm.drv. On a clean boot, post test.scm reconfiguration: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- richard@test ~$ sudo herd status Password: Started: [...] Stopped: - ganeti-metad - ssh-daemon [...] --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- While running reconfigure: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- building /gnu/store/6dcgjsa8gbv6wdq8nyrdkm5sxw8zgxl3-upgrade-shepherd-services.scm.drv... [...] shepherd: Service user-homes has been started. shepherd: Starting service ganeti-metad... shepherd: Service ganeti-metad could not be started. shepherd: Service user-homes has been started. shepherd: Starting service ssh-daemon... shepherd: Service ssh-daemon has been started. To complete the upgrade, run 'herd restart SERVICE' to stop, upgrade, and restart each service that was not automatically restarted. Run 'herd status' to view the list of services on your system. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- After running reconfigure: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- richard@test ~$ sudo herd status Started: [...] + ssh-daemon [...] Failed to start: ! ganeti-metad --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Guix describe output: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Generation 5 Dec 27 2023 16:35:46 (current) nonguix 71a53fa repository URL: https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix branch: master commit: 71a53faf2e1925a309b480f17e5b836740ce54bc guix 931d893 repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git branch: master commit: 931d893c550128591018587c90d2491fd66a11a4 --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---