diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 557aa1cc4..bb1b82bb1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@ makefiles = \
   misc/fish/local.mk \
   misc/zsh/local.mk \
   misc/systemd/local.mk \
-  misc/launchd/local.mk \
-  misc/upstart/local.mk
+  misc/launchd/local.mk
 endif
 
 ifeq ($(ENABLE_BUILD)_$(ENABLE_TESTS), yes_yes)
diff --git a/doc/manual/rl-next/upstart-removal.md b/doc/manual/rl-next/upstart-removal.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..faec2264a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/manual/rl-next/upstart-removal.md
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+synopsis: Upstart scripts removed
+# prs: cl 574
+---
+
+Upstart scripts have been removed from Lix, since Upstart is obsolete and has
+not been shipped by any major distributions for many years. If these are
+necessary to your use case, please back port them to your packaging.
diff --git a/misc/upstart/local.mk b/misc/upstart/local.mk
deleted file mode 100644
index 2fbfb29b9..000000000
--- a/misc/upstart/local.mk
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
-ifdef HOST_LINUX
-
-  $(foreach n, nix-daemon.conf, $(eval $(call install-file-in, $(d)/$(n), $(sysconfdir)/init, 0644)))
-
-  clean-files += $(d)/nix-daemon.conf
-
-endif
diff --git a/misc/upstart/nix-daemon.conf.in b/misc/upstart/nix-daemon.conf.in
deleted file mode 100644
index 0e806edbd..000000000
--- a/misc/upstart/nix-daemon.conf.in
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-description "Nix Daemon"
-start on filesystem
-stop on shutdown
-respawn
-exec @bindir@/nix-daemon --daemon