FAQ Fetch Restrictions

From Gentoo Linux Wiki

This article is part of the FAQ series.

Certain ebuilds have fetch restrictions, which means that portage will not download the required files automatically. This is usually because of a licensing restriction; for example to install cedega you have to pay for the binaries and then go through an authentication process to download them. Other reasons for fetch restrictions include required files only being available from a site that is not bot-friendly or one that disallows bots altogether.

An ebuild with a fetch restriction will display an F on an emerge --pretend. Here is an example:

 $ emerge quake3-ra3 --pretend
 
 These are the packages that I would merge, in order:
 
 Calculating dependencies ...done!
 [ebuild  N F  ] games-fps/quake3-ra3-1.76

As of version 2.1.2_rc1-r7, portage will also print out a summary of fetch restrictions at the bottom of the output of emerge --pretend. For example:

 $ emerge -vp cedega acml scilab
 
 These are the packages that would be merged, in order:
 
 Calculating dependencies... done!
 [ebuild  N F  ] app-emulation/cedega-5.2.3  USE="cups dbus opengl" 1,759 kB 
 [ebuild   Rf  ] sci-libs/acml-3.1.0-r1  USE="(-sse) (-sse2)" 0 kB 
 [ebuild  N    ] sci-mathematics/scilab-2.7-r3  USE="X gtk (-ifc) -tcltk" 9,895 kB 
 
 Total: 3 packages (2 new, 1 reinstall), Size of downloads: 11,654 kB
 Fetch Restriction: 2 packages (1 unsatisfied)

Emerging an ebuild with a fetch restriction will cause Portage to check for the required files in /usr/portage/distfiles

If the files are not found the ebuild file will give you instructions on how to download them manually. Just follow the instructions to get the files, put them in /usr/portage/distfiles and restart the emerge.