dev-libs/libgudev-238-r1 requires udev from systemd-utils rather than from sys-fs/eudev. An attempt to emerge libgudev will show: "sys-fs/eudev" is soft blocking sys-apps/systemd-utils-253.8 Does this mean that the independent eudev is no longer relevant to Gentoo and that systemd-utils will now be a requirement?
Yes, if you are using programs that depend on libgudev, you must use systemd or systemd-utils. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 913702 ***