{"slug": "ncdu", "name": "ncdu", "category": "terminal", "category_name": "Terminal and shell", "description": "", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 4.902, "rising": -1.64, "first": "2025-12-29", "latest": "2026-07-17", "why": "a visual disk usage analyzer terminal tool which saved me countless times", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 1, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "a visual disk usage analyzer terminal tool which saved me countless times", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "blicky.net", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://dev.yorhel.nl/ncdu", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["ncdu"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 783277056, "item_id": 48954816, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48954816", "by": "sleetdrop", "date": "2026-07-17", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019ve been using ncdu and WinDirStat for years.", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been using ncdu and WinDirStat for years. This looks awesome. One feature I\u2019d love to see is exporting the results as HTML+SVG reports. I maintain a shared server, and it\u2019s often useful to share a report with the team to figure out who\u2019s using up the disk space.", "context": "maintains a shared server", "use_case": "disk usage analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Leaves \u2013 a text-UI disk usage treemap visualizer"}, {"id": 783076592, "item_id": 48942287, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48942287", "by": "dunham", "date": "2026-07-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've used \"ncdu\" to visualize my restic backups", "excerpt": "That looks like a nice tool. It would be helpful if it could optionally run off of a data file. I've used \"ncdu\" to visualize my restic backups by writing a script that generates the ncdu data format, and more recently I've abused ncdu to visualize process memory usage on macos: https://gist.github.com/dunhamsteve/59f5e6b9a4bc69039853674dd8aac1c4", "context": "", "use_case": "Disk usage visualization", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Leaves \u2013 a text-UI disk usage treemap visualizer"}, {"id": 760315072, "item_id": 47519692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47519692", "by": "ggerules", "date": "2026-03-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've used ncdu for years. Great utility!", "excerpt": "I've used ncdu for years. Great utility! I'm sorry he is gone. How did he die? He doesn't look too old from his website, https://dev.yorhel.nl.", "context": "", "use_case": "disk usage analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "VNDB founder Yorhel has died"}, {"id": 759680304, "item_id": 47480019, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47480019", "by": "Anonyneko", "date": "2026-03-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a visual disk usage analyzer terminal tool which saved me countless times", "excerpt": "Yorhel is also the creator of ncdu (a visual disk usage analyzer terminal tool which saved me countless times), as well as https://manned.org/ (a huge man pages index). And in the VN world he has also done a lot of non-public but equally vital work too. Tremendous loss.", "context": "", "use_case": "disk usage analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yorhel, founder of the Visual Novel Database (vndb.org) has passed away"}, {"id": 755515440, "item_id": 47219715, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47219715", "by": "dewey", "date": "2026-03-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "is great if you are okay with the command line", "excerpt": "Something like https://dev.yorhel.nl/ncdu with (\"brew install ncdu\") is great if you are okay with the command line. It's very annoying to drill down in the Finder especially if it's hidden directories.", "context": "", "use_case": "Disk usage analysis in terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anthropic Cowork feature creates 10GB VM bundle on macOS without warning"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "sleetdrop", "context": "maintains a shared server", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48954816", "date": "2026-07-17"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["disk usage analysis", "disk usage visualization", "disk usage analysis in terminal"], "compared": [{"slug": "gdu", "name": "gdu", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "leaves", "name": "Leaves", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 799495264, "item_id": 49968454, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49968454", "by": "rcalixte", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Ultimately, I won't make some of the same decisions regarding the build system", "excerpt": "> I don't have accounts on Lobste.rs, and I thought it would be sort-of rude to ask this on Github Issues, so I'm asking here... sorry if it bothers you Sorry if this came off poorly. You documented most of the differences here: https://code.blicky.net/yorhel/ncdu/issues/279 Ultimately, I won't make some of the same decisions regarding the build system and a few other changes. I feel like we have a small community of", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ncdu: An Updated Fork"}, {"id": 799476528, "item_id": 49967283, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967283", "by": "BratishkaErik", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Please feel free to cherry-pick whatever you need from my fork", "excerpt": "Big thanks to you too for maintaining his legacy, > This project carries significance for me Same > I aim to implement some form of CI/CD at some point as well. Please feel free to cherry-pick whatever you need from my fork: * https://github.com/BratishkaErik/ncdu I have moved \"static release\" logic from Makefile to \"build.zig\", but the idea should be generally same and easily transferrable to your fork. There was al", "context": "", "use_case": "Disk usage analysis (fork)", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ncdu: An Updated Fork"}, {"id": 799473648, "item_id": 49967103, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967103", "by": "BratishkaErik", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "this is a new independent fork from original upstream", "excerpt": "It's not, this is a new independent fork from original upstream. If you refer to my commits in his fork from March of 2025, they are also from the original upstream: https://code.blicky.net/yorhel/ncdu/pulls?q=&type=pr&state=all&poster=387", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ncdu: An Updated Fork"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49957028", "title": "Ncdu: An Updated Fork", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48936389", "title": "Show HN: Leaves \u2013 a text-UI disk usage treemap visualizer", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48303881", "title": "Biff is a command line datetime Swiss army knife", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47479362", "title": "VNDB founder Yorhel has died", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475420", "title": "Yorhel, founder of the Visual Novel Database (vndb.org) has passed away", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47218288", "title": "Anthropic Cowork feature creates 10GB VM bundle on macOS without warning", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"compare": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 783277056, "item_id": 48954816, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48954816", "by": "sleetdrop", "date": "2026-07-17", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019ve been using ncdu and WinDirStat for years.", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been using ncdu and WinDirStat for years. This looks awesome. One feature I\u2019d love to see is exporting the results as HTML+SVG reports. I maintain a shared server, and it\u2019s often useful to share a report with the team to figure out who\u2019s using up the disk space.", "context": "maintains a shared server", "use_case": "disk usage analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Leaves \u2013 a text-UI disk usage treemap visualizer"}, {"id": 783076592, "item_id": 48942287, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48942287", "by": "dunham", "date": "2026-07-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've used \"ncdu\" to visualize my restic backups", "excerpt": "That looks like a nice tool. It would be helpful if it could optionally run off of a data file. I've used \"ncdu\" to visualize my restic backups by writing a script that generates the ncdu data format, and more recently I've abused ncdu to visualize process memory usage on macos: https://gist.github.com/dunhamsteve/59f5e6b9a4bc69039853674dd8aac1c4", "context": "", "use_case": "Disk usage visualization", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Leaves \u2013 a text-UI disk usage treemap visualizer"}, {"id": 773053282, "item_id": 48315830, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48315830", "by": "dotancohen", "date": "2026-05-28", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "those are git and ncdu", "excerpt": "If you've got enough permissions on the device to install a local llm, go ahead and install rg. After a few decades of installing my pet toys on every *nix box I maintain, I've seriously scaled back. Yet I continue to install rg. I can think of only two other non-default Debian install tools that I use regularly, those are git and ncdu.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Biff is a command line datetime Swiss army knife"}, {"id": 760315072, "item_id": 47519692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47519692", "by": "ggerules", "date": "2026-03-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've used ncdu for years. Great utility!", "excerpt": "I've used ncdu for years. Great utility! I'm sorry he is gone. How did he die? He doesn't look too old from his website, https://dev.yorhel.nl.", "context": "", "use_case": "disk usage analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "VNDB founder Yorhel has died"}, {"id": 759680304, "item_id": 47480019, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47480019", "by": "Anonyneko", "date": "2026-03-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a visual disk usage analyzer terminal tool which saved me countless times", "excerpt": "Yorhel is also the creator of ncdu (a visual disk usage analyzer terminal tool which saved me countless times), as well as https://manned.org/ (a huge man pages index). And in the VN world he has also done a lot of non-public but equally vital work too. Tremendous loss.", "context": "", "use_case": "disk usage analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yorhel, founder of the Visual Novel Database (vndb.org) has passed away"}, {"id": 755515440, "item_id": 47219715, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47219715", "by": "dewey", "date": "2026-03-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "is great if you are okay with the command line", "excerpt": "Something like https://dev.yorhel.nl/ncdu with (\"brew install ncdu\") is great if you are okay with the command line. It's very annoying to drill down in the Finder especially if it's hidden directories.", "context": "", "use_case": "Disk usage analysis in terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anthropic Cowork feature creates 10GB VM bundle on macOS without warning"}, {"id": 742860225, "item_id": 46428764, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46428764", "by": "lsh0", "date": "2025-12-29", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "See also `gdu` for an `ncdu` more suited to SSDs", "excerpt": "See also `gdu` for an `ncdu` more suited to SSDs: https://github.com/dundee/gdu", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Flame Graphs vs. Tree Maps vs. Sunburst (2017)"}]}