Using ncdu to examine disk usage

du has been my go-to tool for checking disk usage and it’s wonderfully simple. But I’ve been using ncdu for a few weeks now.

ncdu is short for NCurses Disk Usage. In addition to being able to visualize disk usage by directory, it lets you sort on different parameters, delete files, show hidden files, and a few more stuff that you’ll miss if you go back to plain du. Most importantly it acts as a file manager, so you can simply enter the directories to see a more fine-grained breakdown of file sizes. As an added bonus it has Vim keybindings along with normal arrow key movements.

ncdu - ncurses disk usage

Screenshot of ncdu + help popup

Installation:

brew install ncdu # macOS
sudo apt-get install ncdu # Ubuntu/debian

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