2018-12-03
The Advent of Void: Day 3: ncdu
Even though disks are large and cheap, its still very nice to be able to track down what is using disk space in a graphical way. While there are many nice tools that do this for desktops, if you’re on a server or otherwise a remote connection, you’ll need a text-mode tool. This is where ncdu(1) comes in.
When launched ncdu scans the directories below the current working
directory and displays an output of the relative filesizes.
ncdu 1.13 ~ Use the arrow keys to navigate, press ? for help
--- /home/maldridge/Desktop/advent/ncdu ----------------------------------------
777.0 MiB [##########] hack3r5.divx
24.0 MiB [ ] plan_for_world_domination.tex
8.0 MiB [ ] /secret_keys
Total disk usage: 809.0 MiB Apparent size: 809.0 MiB Items: 4
Navigation is straight forward and the tree is very responsive since all the sizes are scanned at startup.
You can even delete files by pressing d while hovering on the file
to delete:
ncdu 1.13 ~ Use the arrow keys to navigate, press ? for help
--- /home/┌───Confirm delete─────────────────────────────────────────┐----------
│ Are you sure you want to delete "backdoor.key"? │
8.0 Mi│ │
│ │
│ yes no don't ask me again │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Total disk usage: 8.0 MiB Apparent size: 8.0 MiB Items: 1