diff --git a/doc/config.rst b/doc/config.rst
index ef9ac5ccb9..db3ca7998a 100644
--- a/doc/config.rst
+++ b/doc/config.rst
@@ -120,8 +120,12 @@ Global settings are defined under the ``tox`` section as:
     .. code-block:: ini
 
         [tox]
-        requires = setuptools >= 30.0.0
-                   py
+        requires = tox-venv
+                   setuptools >= 30.0.0
+
+    .. note:: tox does **not** install those required packages for you. tox only checks if the
+              requirements are satisfied and crashes early with an helpful error rather then later
+              in the process.
 
 .. conf:: isolated_build ^ true|false ^ false
 
diff --git a/src/tox/config.py b/src/tox/config.py
index e560c22147..2bcd0f7be8 100755
--- a/src/tox/config.py
+++ b/src/tox/config.py
@@ -1084,19 +1084,20 @@ def _make_thread_safe_path(self, config, attr, unique_id):
 
     @staticmethod
     def ensure_requires_satisfied(specified):
-        fail = False
+        missing_requirements = []
         for s in specified:
             try:
                 pkg_resources.get_distribution(s)
             except pkg_resources.RequirementParseError:
                 raise
             except Exception:
-                fail = True
-                print(
-                    "requirement missing {}".format(pkg_resources.Requirement(s)), file=sys.stderr
+                missing_requirements.append(str(pkg_resources.Requirement(s)))
+        if missing_requirements:
+            raise tox.exception.MissingRequirement(
+                "Packages {} need to be installed alongside tox in {}".format(
+                    ", ".join(missing_requirements), sys.executable
                 )
-        if fail:
-            raise RuntimeError("not all requirements satisfied, install them alongside tox")
+            )
 
     def _list_section_factors(self, section):
         factors = set()
diff --git a/src/tox/exception.py b/src/tox/exception.py
index 246fca7fb0..4ad07e460a 100644
--- a/src/tox/exception.py
+++ b/src/tox/exception.py
@@ -80,6 +80,10 @@ class MissingDependency(Error):
     """A dependency could not be found or determined."""
 
 
+class MissingRequirement(Error):
+    """A requirement defined in :config:`require` is not met."""
+
+
 class MinVersionError(Error):
     """The installed tox version is lower than requested minversion."""
 
diff --git a/src/tox/interpreters.py b/src/tox/interpreters.py
index ccdbfdb53c..e3fd9902e6 100644
--- a/src/tox/interpreters.py
+++ b/src/tox/interpreters.py
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ def tox_get_python_executable(envconfig):
             # The standard names are in predictable places.
             actual = r"c:\python{}\python.exe".format("".join(groups))
         else:
+
             actual = win32map.get(name, None)
         if actual:
             actual = py.path.local(actual)
diff --git a/src/tox/session.py b/src/tox/session.py
index 4d5c782336..e2c89f675e 100644
--- a/src/tox/session.py
+++ b/src/tox/session.py
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ def main(args):
         raise SystemExit(retcode)
     except KeyboardInterrupt:
         raise SystemExit(2)
-    except tox.exception.MinVersionError as e:
+    except (tox.exception.MinVersionError, tox.exception.MissingRequirement) as e:
         r = Reporter(None)
         r.error(str(e))
         raise SystemExit(1)
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_config.py b/tests/unit/test_config.py
index 1981c2b80d..9fbeefb013 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_config.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_config.py
@@ -2644,26 +2644,20 @@ def test_commands_with_backslash(self, newconfig):
         assert envconfig.commands[0] == ["some", r"hello\world"]
 
 
-def test_plugin_require(newconfig, capsys):
+def test_plugin_require(newconfig):
     inisource = """
         [tox]
         requires = tox
                    name[foo,bar]>=2,<3; python_version>"2.0" and os_name=='a'
                    b
     """
-    with pytest.raises(
-        RuntimeError, match="not all requirements satisfied, install them alongside tox"
-    ):
+    with pytest.raises(tox.exception.MissingRequirement) as exc_info:
         newconfig([], inisource)
 
-    out, err = capsys.readouterr()
-    assert err.strip() == "\n".join(
-        [
-            'requirement missing name[bar,foo]<3,>=2; python_version > "2.0" and os_name == "a"',
-            "requirement missing b",
-        ]
+    assert exc_info.value.args[0] == (
+        r'Packages name[bar,foo]<3,>=2; python_version > "2.0" and os_name == "a", b '
+        r"need to be installed alongside tox in {}".format(sys.executable)
     )
-    assert not out
 
 
 def test_isolated_build_env_cannot_be_in_envlist(newconfig, capsys):
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_docs.py b/tests/unit/test_docs.py
index c3e9b7b70e..4d19e8b3d3 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_docs.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_docs.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 import pytest
 
+import tox
 from tox.config import parseconfig
 
 INI_BLOCK_RE = re.compile(
@@ -20,9 +21,9 @@
 RST_FILES = []
 TOX_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))))
 for root, _, filenames in os.walk(os.path.join(TOX_ROOT, "doc")):
-    for f in filenames:
-        if f.endswith(".rst"):
-            RST_FILES.append(os.path.join(root, f))
+    for filename in filenames:
+        if filename.endswith(".rst"):
+            RST_FILES.append(os.path.join(root, filename))
 
 
 def test_some_files_exist():
@@ -35,10 +36,12 @@ def test_all_rst_ini_blocks_parse(filename, tmpdir):
         contents = f.read()
     for match in INI_BLOCK_RE.finditer(contents):
         code = textwrap.dedent(match.group("code"))
-        f = tmpdir.join("tox.ini")
-        f.write(code)
+        config_path = tmpdir / "tox.ini"
+        config_path.write(code)
         try:
-            parseconfig(("-c", str(f)))
+            parseconfig(["-c", str(config_path)])
+        except tox.exception.MissingRequirement:
+            assert "requires = tox-venv" in str(code)
         except Exception as e:
             raise AssertionError(
                 "Error parsing ini block\n\n"