On May 20, autools.eclass was changed to no longer inherit eutils, see http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/eclass/autotools.eclass?r1=1.133&r2=1.134
Relying on autotools.eclass for your eutils needs was always a terrible idea, but a few ebuilds did it anyway. Those ebuilds are now *broken* since they can no longer use epatch. See bug #416847 for an example. Check your ebuilds to make sure you inherit eutils in anything that uses epatch! -Alexandre Rostovtsev.
