diff --git a/app-emulation/qemu/qemu-7.0.0-r3.ebuild b/app-emulation/qemu/qemu-7.0.0-r3.ebuild
index e0be1218e1521..5136fb92084e8 100644
--- a/app-emulation/qemu/qemu-7.0.0-r3.ebuild
+++ b/app-emulation/qemu/qemu-7.0.0-r3.ebuild
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ EAPI=8
 # Generate using https://github.com/thesamesam/sam-gentoo-scripts/blob/main/niche/generate-qemu-docs
 # Set to 1 if prebuilt, 0 if not
 # (the construct below is to allow overriding from env for script)
-QEMU_DOCS_PREBUILT=${QEMU_DOCS_PREBUILT:-1}
+: ${QEMU_DOCS_PREBUILT:=1}
+
 QEMU_DOCS_PREBUILT_DEV=sam
 QEMU_DOCS_VERSION=$(ver_cut 1-3)
 # Default to generating docs (inc. man pages) if no prebuilt; overridden later
diff --git a/app-emulation/qemu/qemu-9999.ebuild b/app-emulation/qemu/qemu-9999.ebuild
index f10fc57e1950d..e4f37bb04fdd5 100644
--- a/app-emulation/qemu/qemu-9999.ebuild
+++ b/app-emulation/qemu/qemu-9999.ebuild
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ EAPI=8
 # Generate using https://github.com/thesamesam/sam-gentoo-scripts/blob/main/niche/generate-qemu-docs
 # Set to 1 if prebuilt, 0 if not
 # (the construct below is to allow overriding from env for script)
-QEMU_DOCS_PREBUILT=${QEMU_DOCS_PREBUILT:-1}
+: ${QEMU_DOCS_PREBUILT:=1}
+
 QEMU_DOCS_PREBUILT_DEV=sam
 QEMU_DOCS_VERSION=$(ver_cut 1-3)
 # Default to generating docs (inc. man pages) if no prebuilt; overridden later