Sim, o apt-get pode executar uma operação somente de download.
$ apt-get --help
[...]
Commands:
[...]
install - Install new packages (pkg is libc6 not libc6.deb)
Options:
[...]
-d Download only - do NOT install or unpack archives
Para baixar somente pacotes (e suas dependências):
apt-get -d install [package_name ...]
Exemplo:
$ sudo apt-get -d install openvpn
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
liblzo2-2 libpkcs11-helper1
The following NEW packages will be installed:
liblzo2-2 libpkcs11-helper1 openvpn
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 563 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,444 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main liblzo2-2 i386 2.06-1ubuntu0.1 [60.8 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main libpkcs11-helper1 i386 1.09-1 [47.5 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main openvpn i386 2.2.1-8ubuntu1.4 [455 kB]
Fetched 563 kB in 0s (6,168 kB/s)
Download complete and in download only mode
Os pacotes serão armazenados em /var/cache/apt/archives
, não no diretório de trabalho atual.