diff --git a/mercurial/scmutil.py b/mercurial/scmutil.py
--- a/mercurial/scmutil.py
+++ b/mercurial/scmutil.py
@@ -1145,25 +1145,6 @@
         elif not dryrun:
             wctx.copy(origsrc, dst)
 
-def readrequires(opener, supported):
-    '''Reads and parses .hg/requires and checks if all entries found
-    are in the list of supported features.'''
-    requirements = set(opener.read("requires").splitlines())
-    missings = []
-    for r in requirements:
-        if r not in supported:
-            if not r or not r[0:1].isalnum():
-                raise error.RequirementError(_(".hg/requires file is corrupt"))
-            missings.append(r)
-    missings.sort()
-    if missings:
-        raise error.RequirementError(
-            _("repository requires features unknown to this Mercurial: %s")
-            % " ".join(missings),
-            hint=_("see https://mercurial-scm.org/wiki/MissingRequirement"
-                   " for more information"))
-    return requirements
-
 def writerequires(opener, requirements):
     with opener('requires', 'w') as fp:
         for r in sorted(requirements):
diff --git a/mercurial/statichttprepo.py b/mercurial/statichttprepo.py
--- a/mercurial/statichttprepo.py
+++ b/mercurial/statichttprepo.py
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
     manifest,
     namespaces,
     pathutil,
-    scmutil,
     store,
     url,
     util,
@@ -156,7 +155,7 @@
         self.filtername = None
 
         try:
-            requirements = scmutil.readrequires(self.vfs, self.supported)
+            requirements = set(self.vfs.read(b'requires').splitlines())
         except IOError as inst:
             if inst.errno != errno.ENOENT:
                 raise
@@ -174,6 +173,10 @@
                 msg = _("'%s' does not appear to be an hg repository") % path
                 raise error.RepoError(msg)
 
+        supportedrequirements = localrepo.gathersupportedrequirements(ui)
+        localrepo.ensurerequirementsrecognized(requirements,
+                                               supportedrequirements)
+
         # setup store
         self.store = store.store(requirements, self.path, vfsclass)
         self.spath = self.store.path