diff --git a/bin/sync-rebuilds b/bin/sync-rebuilds
index d99277f..32fc775 100755
--- a/bin/sync-rebuilds
+++ b/bin/sync-rebuilds
@@ -258,6 +258,8 @@ carried_version() { # carried_version <arch> <pkgdir>
   pkgver=$(package_pkgbuild_var "$2" pkgver "$1") || return 1
   pkgrel=$(package_pkgbuild_var "$2" pkgrel "$1") || return 1
   [[ -n "$pkgver" && -n "$pkgrel" ]] || return 1
+  # makepkg leaves a zero epoch out of the published version
+  [[ "$epoch" != 0 ]] || epoch=""
   echo "${epoch:+$epoch:}$pkgver-$pkgrel"
 }
 
@@ -942,6 +944,15 @@ PKG
   check "arch-specific value follows CARCH" "arm64" "$(package_pkgbuild_var "$root/pkgbuilds/t-carch" _suffix aarch64)"
   check "unsupported arch reports failure" 1 "$(package_pkgbuild_var "$root/pkgbuilds/t-carch" pkgver armv7h >/dev/null; echo $?)"
 
+  echo "A carried recipe's version is spelled the way makepkg publishes it:"
+  root=$(selftest_root carried-epoch)
+  selftest_package "$root" t-epoch 1.1 '{"source":"local"}' 0.15.1 aarch64
+  check "no epoch" "0.15.1-1.1" "$(carried_version aarch64 "$root/pkgbuilds/t-epoch")"
+  echo 'epoch=0' >> "$root/pkgbuilds/t-epoch/PKGBUILD"
+  check "a zero epoch is left out" "0.15.1-1.1" "$(carried_version aarch64 "$root/pkgbuilds/t-epoch")"
+  echo 'epoch=2' >> "$root/pkgbuilds/t-epoch/PKGBUILD"
+  check "a real epoch is kept" "2:0.15.1-1.1" "$(carried_version aarch64 "$root/pkgbuilds/t-epoch")"
+
   echo ""
   if [[ "$failures" -eq 0 ]]; then
     print_success "Self-test passed"