ncdu

Guidance last updated: 19 October 2026

ncdu (NCurses Disk Usage) is a terminal-based disk usage analyser that scans folders (directories) and shows you how large files and folders are. It lets you browse the results interactively, sorted by size, making it easy to find the files and folders that are using up your storage quota and that you may want to delete or move to free up space. For more information on storage areas and quotas, see Filestores.

Interactive usage

After connecting to Stanage (see Establishing a SSH connection), start an interactive session:

salloc

ncdu on Stanage is made available with the command:

module load ncdu/1.22-GCCcore-14.3.0
module load ncdu/1.18-GCC-12.3.0

To scan your home directory and browse its disk usage:

$ ncdu "$HOME"

If you would like to scan a different folder, replace $HOME with the path to that folder.

Useful keys while browsing:

  • ↑ / ↓ to move, → / Enter to open a directory, ← to go back

  • s / n to sort by size or name

  • g to toggle the percentage/graph display

  • ? for help, q to quit

A full list of options is available with ncdu --help or man ncdu.

Screenshots of the program in use can be found on the following page: https://dev.yorhel.nl/ncdu/scr

Installation notes

ncdu was installed using Easybuild, build details can be found in $EBROOTNCDU/easybuild with a given module loaded.

Direct dependencies for latest version of ncdu