diff --git a/src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc b/src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc
index dc8df2217..210912cb6 100644
--- a/src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc
+++ b/src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc
@@ -133,6 +133,10 @@ std::pair<Tree, Input> Input::fetch(ref<Store> store) const
     }
 
     auto [storePath, input] = [&]() -> std::pair<StorePath, Input> {
+        // *sighs*, we print the base URL, rather than the full URL because the Nixpkgs
+        // fileset lib tests assume that fetching shallow and non-shallow prints exactly the
+        // same stderr...
+        printInfo("fetching %s input '%s'", this->getType(), this->toURL().base);
         try {
             return scheme->fetch(store, *this);
         } catch (Error & e) {
diff --git a/tests/functional/nix-profile.sh b/tests/functional/nix-profile.sh
index ed014f9ef..13a73ead9 100644
--- a/tests/functional/nix-profile.sh
+++ b/tests/functional/nix-profile.sh
@@ -155,6 +155,7 @@ diff -u <(
     nix --offline profile install $flake2Dir 2>&1 1> /dev/null \
         | grep -vE "^warning: " \
         | grep -vE "^error \(ignored\): " \
+        | grep -vE "^fetching .+ input" \
         || true
 ) <(cat << EOF
 error: An existing package already provides the following file: