How to download packages without installing using apt in Ubuntu/Debian

apt or Advanced Packaging Tool is used by Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distribution to install packages into the system. apt will automatically download and install requested packages along with dependencies from its package repository.

Running the following apt-get command will automatically download and install the package and all its dependencies.

sudo apt-get install package-name

If you are, for some reason, want apt-get to download the packages and dependencies without installing it, add -d switch to the command like the following.

sudo apt-get install -d package-name

To confirm that the package is not installed, you're presented with the following output when the command is done executing.

Download complete and in download only mode