Hello. See bin/ebuild.sh: if [[ -n $ECLASS && -n ${!__export_funcs_var} ]] ; then echo "QA Notice: EXPORT_FUNCTIONS is called before inherit in" \ "$ECLASS.eclass. For compatibility with <=portage-2.1.6.7," \ "only call EXPORT_FUNCTIONS after inherit(s)." \ | fmt -w 75 | while read -r ; do eqawarn "$REPLY" ; done fi The mentioned portage version was removed 5 years ago: https://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/sys-apps/portage/portage-2.1.6.7.ebuild?hideattic=0&view=log We should move on and drop this check.
We may drop the 'for compatibility' part but I think it's better to have EXPORT_FUNCTIONS after inherit anyway.
repoman support has been removed per bug 835013. Please file a new bug (or, I suppose, reopen this one) if you feel this check is still applicable to pkgcheck and doesn't already exist.