diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish-copr.yml b/.github/workflows/publish-copr.yml
index a305404..ecdce2d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish-copr.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish-copr.yml
@@ -55,7 +55,16 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           # Set up the rpmbuild tree.
           mkdir -p "$HOME/rpmbuild"/{SOURCES,SPECS,SRPMS}
-          cp packaging/qn-bin.spec "$HOME/rpmbuild/SPECS/qn-bin.spec"
+
+          # sed the version literally into the spec rather than passing
+          # --define qn_version=...  to rpmbuild. COPR's older chroots
+          # (EPEL 9, Fedora 42-44) re-parse the SRPM's spec during the
+          # binary-build phase without inheriting the source build's
+          # --define, leaving "%{qn_version}" unexpanded and breaking
+          # the build. Burning the version in at SRPM-build time means
+          # every downstream parse sees the same literal.
+          sed "s/@@QN_VERSION@@/$QN_VERSION/g" packaging/qn-bin.spec \
+            > "$HOME/rpmbuild/SPECS/qn-bin.spec"
 
           # Pre-download both arch tarballs into SOURCES/ — rpmbuild -bs
           # needs the actual files present locally to embed them in the
@@ -74,7 +83,6 @@ jobs:
           # the runner; COPR's mock chroot handles that for the real build.
           rpmbuild -bs "$HOME/rpmbuild/SPECS/qn-bin.spec" \
             --define "_topdir $HOME/rpmbuild" \
-            --define "qn_version $QN_VERSION" \
             --nodeps
           ls -la "$HOME/rpmbuild/SRPMS/"
 
diff --git a/packaging/qn-bin.spec b/packaging/qn-bin.spec
index d07d3f4..f1e8abf 100644
--- a/packaging/qn-bin.spec
+++ b/packaging/qn-bin.spec
@@ -13,13 +13,26 @@
 # the parser state and causes downstream "Name field must be present"
 # errors that look unrelated.
 #
+# The version is substituted by .github/workflows/publish-copr.yml via
+# sed before rpmbuild -bs: every @@QN_VERSION@@ becomes the actual
+# release version (0.1.4 etc.). We don't use a spec macro because COPR's
+# older chroots (EPEL 9, Fedora 42-44) re-parse the spec during the
+# binary-build phase without inheriting our --define from the source
+# build, leading to a literal unexpanded macro in error messages.
+#
 # Built by .github/workflows/publish-copr.yml on each release. That
 # workflow pre-downloads both arch tarballs into ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/
-# before invoking `rpmbuild -bs`, so the resulting SRPM carries the
-# sources and COPR's mock can build with --enable-net=off if desired.
+# before invoking rpmbuild -bs, so the resulting SRPM carries the
+# sources and COPR's mock can build without network access.
+
+# Skip the auto-generated debuginfo subpackage. Our binary is already
+# stripped by cargo-dist upstream, and we don't claim the resulting
+# /usr/lib/debug/... file in the files section, so without this Fedora's
+# strict "unpackaged files found" check fails the build.
+%global debug_package %{nil}
 
 Name:    qn
-Version: %{qn_version}
+Version: @@QN_VERSION@@
 Release: 1%{?dist}
 Summary: Command-line interface for the Quicknode SDK
 License: MIT
@@ -63,5 +76,5 @@ install -Dm644 README.md  %{buildroot}%{_docdir}/%{name}/README.md
 %doc README.md
 
 %changelog
-* Thu Jun 11 2026 Quicknode <support@quicknode.com> - %{version}-1
+* Thu Jun 11 2026 Quicknode <support@quicknode.com> - @@QN_VERSION@@-1
 - Automated build from the GitHub Release upstream.