diff --git a/common/environment/setup-subpkg/subpkg.sh b/common/environment/setup-subpkg/subpkg.sh
index 8cdcc621f51..91c5ec7c12e 100644
--- a/common/environment/setup-subpkg/subpkg.sh
+++ b/common/environment/setup-subpkg/subpkg.sh
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ unset -v font_dirs
 unset -v xml_entries sgml_entries xml_catalogs sgml_catalogs
 
 # xbps-triggers: pycompile
-unset -v pycompile_dirs pycompile_module
+unset -v pycompile_version pycompile_dirs pycompile_module
 
 # xbps-triggers: dkms
 unset -v dkms_modules
diff --git a/common/hooks/post-install/04-create-xbps-metadata-scripts.sh b/common/hooks/post-install/04-create-xbps-metadata-scripts.sh
index b8fa3688cdf..956ec5556c0 100644
--- a/common/hooks/post-install/04-create-xbps-metadata-scripts.sh
+++ b/common/hooks/post-install/04-create-xbps-metadata-scripts.sh
@@ -239,6 +239,7 @@ _EOF
 	# Handle python bytecode archives with pycompile trigger.
 	#
 	if [ -n "${pycompile_dirs}" -o -n "${pycompile_module}" ]; then
+		echo "export pycompile_version=\"${pycompile_version:=2.7}\"" >>$tmpf
 		if [ -n "${pycompile_dirs}" ]; then
 			echo "export pycompile_dirs=\"${pycompile_dirs}\"" >>$tmpf
 		fi