How To Download a RPM Package Using yum Command Without Installing On Linux

I would like to only download the packages via yum and not install/update them. How do I download a RPM package using yum command under CentOS Enterprise Linux server 5.x or RHEL 5.x systems?

You need to install plugin called yum-downloadonly. This plugin adds a --downloadonly flag to yum so that yum will only download the packages and not install/update them. Following options supported by this plugin:
[a] --downloadonly : don't update, just download a rpm file
[b] --downloaddir=/path/to/dir : specifies an alternate directory to store packages such as /tmp
Please note following instructions are only tested on CentOS server but should work with RHN and RHEL without any problem.

How do I install yum-downloadonly plugin?

Type the following command to install plugin, enter:
# yum install yum-downloadonly
Sample output:

Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading "security" plugin
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: centos.mirrors.tds.net
 * updates: mirror.myriadnetwork.com
 * addons: mirrors.gigenet.com
 * extras: holmes.umflint.edu
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package yum-downloadonly.noarch 0:1.1.10-9.el5.centos set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 yum-downloadonly        noarch     1.1.10-9.el5.centos  base              9.0 k
Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      1 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)
Total download size: 9.0 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/1): yum-downloadonly-1 100% |=========================| 9.0 kB    00:00
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing: yum-downloadonly             ######################### [1/1]
Installed: yum-downloadonly.noarch 0:1.1.10-9.el5.centos
Complete!

How do I download a RPM package only from RHN or CentOS mirror, without installing it?

Download httpd package but don't install/update, enter:
# yum update httpd -y --downloadonly
By default package will by downloaded and stored in /var/cache/yum/ directory. But, you can specifies an alternate directory to store packages such as /opt, enter:
# yum update httpd -y --downloadonly --downloaddir=/opt
Sample output:

yum install httpd -y --downloadonly
Loading "downloadonly" plugin
Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading "security" plugin
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: centos.mirrors.mypsh.com
 * updates: mirror.steadfast.net
 * addons: mirrors.gigenet.com
 * extras: holmes.umflint.edu
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package httpd.i386 0:2.2.3-11.el5_1.centos.3 set to be updated
filelists.xml.gz          100% |=========================| 2.8 MB    00:03
filelists.xml.gz          100% |=========================| 681 kB    00:11
filelists.xml.gz          100% |=========================| 122 kB    00:00
filelists.xml.gz          100% |=========================|  150 B    00:00
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 httpd                   i386       2.2.3-11.el5_1.centos.3  base              1.1 M
Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      1 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)
Total download size: 1.1 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/1): httpd-2.2.3-11.el5 100% |=========================| 1.1 MB    00:01
exiting because --downloadonly specified

To see downloaded file, enter:
# ls -l /opt/*.rpm
Sample output:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1116426 Jan 17 03:36 /opt/httpd-2.2.3-11.el5_1.centos.3.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   83452 Oct  2  2007 /opt/lighttpd-fastcgi-1.4.18-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  635045 Oct 20  2007 /opt/psad-2.1-1.i386.rpm

Method # 2: yum-utils.noarch Package

yum-utils is a collection of utilities and examples for the yum package manager. It includes utilities by different authors that make yum easier and more powerful to use. These tools include: debuginfo-install, package-cleanup, repoclosure, repodiff, repo-graph, repomanage, repoquery, repo-rss, reposync, repotrack, verifytree, yum-builddep, yum-complete-transaction, yumdownloader, yum-debug-dump and yum-groups-manager.
# yum -y install yum-utils.noarch
Now use the yumdownloader command which is a program for downloading RPMs from Yum repositories. Type the following command to download httpd rpm file:
# yumdownloader httpd
Sample outputs:

Loaded plugins: rhnplugin
httpd-2.2.3-31.el5_4.2.x86_64.rpm                        | 1.2 MB     00:00

How Do I Extract Downloaded RPM File?

Type the command as follows:
# rpm2cpio httpd-2.2.3-31.el5_4.2.x86_64.rpm | cpio -idmv