"apt-get download" fails if /var/cache/apt/archives/partial is not accessible

[Removed by request]

I'm using Ubuntu 15.04 dev with apt 1.0.9.3ubuntu1 and if /var/cache/apt/archives/partial is not accessible "apt-get download" doesn't download the requested package. Here are 2 examples (missing directory and insufficient permissions because the user permissions (which are restrictive in this case) got inherited with sudo):

sworddragon@ubuntu:~$ sudo rm -fr /var/cache/apt
sworddragon@ubuntu:~$ apt-get download nvidia-settings
E: Archives directory /var/cache/apt/archives/partial is missing. - Acquire (2: No such file or directory)
sworddragon@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get download nvidia-settings
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/main nvidia-settings amd64 346.35-0ubuntu1 [936 kB]
Fetched 936 kB in 2s (392 kB/s)
sworddragon@ubuntu:~$ apt-get download nvidia-settings
E: Archives directory /var/cache/apt/archives/partial is missing. - Acquire (13: Permission denied)

[Removed by request (removed3425744)]

After another test it seems that "apt-get download" doesn't use an advantage from the caches (partial and non-partial) as 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 8861 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/main adwaita-icon-theme-full all 3.14.0-2ubuntu7 [8861 kB]
55% [1 adwaita-icon-theme-full 4894 kB/8861 kB 55%]^C
root@ubuntu:~/tmp# apt-get download adwaita-icon-theme-full
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/main adwaita-icon-theme-full all 3.14.0-2ubuntu7 [8861 kB]
2% [1 adwaita-icon-theme-full 178 kB/8861 kB 2%]^C
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 8861 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/main adwaita-icon-theme-full all 3.14.0-2ubuntu7 [8861 kB]
Fetched 3376 kB in 3s (1029 kB/s)
debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed
(Reading database ... 92319 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../adwaita-icon-theme-full_3.14.0-2ubuntu7_all.deb ...
Unpacking adwaita-icon-theme-full (3.14.0-2ubuntu7) over (3.14.0-2ubuntu7) ...
root@ubuntu:~/tmp# apt-get download adwaita-icon-theme-full
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/main adwaita-icon-theme-full all 3.14.0-2ubuntu7 [8861 kB]
7% [1 adwaita-icon-theme-full 659 kB/8861 kB 7%]^C

I'm wondering why "apt-get download" does then depend on the cache. Or maybe "apt-get download" could be enhanced to use advantages of the caches and fallback to use no cache if something went wrong.

[David Kalnischkies (donkult)]

apt 1.1~exp4 fixes this issue (see also debbug #762898) in git commit 43acd01979039b248cb7f033b82e36d778d0ebec, so try that version then it appears in Ubuntu. Using of the root cache (if available) is at least supposed to happen in that version as well (but also in the version you have… I will give it a spin later… can't be hard,right? ;) )

[dino99 (9d9)]

Fixed in xenial