# ncdu

22 Hacker News commenters recommended ncdu and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Terminal disk usage analyzer that shows where space goes and is available in most distro repos; critics say scans can be slow, including unwanted paths.

## Why people recommend it

- Shows where disk space goes (3 comments): "Filelight / ncdu are my friends for finding random 30GB directories containing cached models." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155189)) "a visual disk usage analyzer terminal tool which saved me countless times" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47480019)) "It helps you visualize where most disk space is getting used up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47682746))
- Preferred over other disk tools (3 comments): "I'd still prefer ncdu for most cases" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48805429)) "sometimes ncdu is better for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49398587)) "kind of does this but better" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49394864))
- Saves time finding large directories (3 comments): "Filelight / ncdu are my friends for finding random 30GB directories containing cached models." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155189)) "a visual disk usage analyzer terminal tool which saved me countless times" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47480019)) "So it saved me a lot of time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47518157))
- Good terminal interface (3 comments): "good showcases how a TUI reduces mental load and are superior to browsers and / or other GUI tools" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47363615)) "is great if you are okay with the command line" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47219715)) "ncdu is really good in the terminal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49051188))

## What people warn about

- Slow scans, including unwanted paths (3 comments): "ncdu, though slower, is very useful and is usually available on distro repos" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47676049)) "Seems to be wasting a lot of time scanning `/run/user/1000/doc` from Flatpak." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49961528)) "1 minute vs 1 second for my entire" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49960407))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Leaves](https://hackerapproved.com/p/leaves.md): 16 recommend
- [dust disk usage analyzer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dust.md): 8 recommend
- [gdu disk usage analyzer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gdu.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ncdu", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ncdu/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).