ncdu — Disk Usage Analyzer

ncdu (NCurses Disk Usage) is a fast, interactive tool for finding what's eating your disk space. It scans directories and presents a sorted, browsable overview.

Installation

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install ncdu

Windows (Scoop)

scoop install ncdu

Windows (Chocolatey)

choco install ncdu

Linux (apt)

sudo apt install ncdu

Linux (dnf)

sudo dnf install ncdu

Scan Your Entire Disk

macOS

sudo ncdu -x /

-x keeps the scan on a single filesystem (skips virtual/network mounts).

Windows

Run your terminal as Administrator, then:

ncdu C:\

Linux

sudo ncdu -x /

Basic Navigation

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move through the list
Enter	Open directory
d	Delete selected file/directory
n	Sort by name
s	Sort by size
q	Quit

Useful Flags

Flag	Description
-x	Stay on the same filesystem
-q	Quiet mode (no update during scan)
-e	Enable shell extension for delete
-o FILE	Export scan results to a file
-f FILE	Load a previously saved scan

Export & reload a scan (handy for large disks)

sudo ncdu -x / -o /tmp/scan.gz
ncdu -f /tmp/scan.gz

This lets you scan once and browse the results later without re-scanning.

ncdu Disk Usage Analyzer Find large files