apt-get download never used the cached packages at all. And now with apt(8) deleting the debs after a successful install, there won't be any in most cases anyway.
It might make sense to do so, though. ** Changed in: apt (Ubuntu) Status: New => Confirmed -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to apt in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1547983 Title: Cache isn't always used Status in apt package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 dev with apt 1.2.3 and I'm noticing that using "apt-get download" does not always use the cache like this example shows: root@ubuntu:~/tmp# apt-get install adwaita-icon-theme-full --reinstall Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 8089 kB of archives. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 adwaita-icon-theme-full all 3.18.0-2ubuntu3 [8089 kB] 60% [1 adwaita-icon-theme-full 6033 kB/8089 kB 75%] 422 kB/s 4s^C root@ubuntu:~/tmp# apt-get download adwaita-icon-theme-full Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 adwaita-icon-theme-full all 3.18.0-2ubuntu3 [8089 kB] 12% [1 adwaita-icon-theme-full 1231 kB/8089 kB 15%]^C To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1547983/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp