dua Setup: Interactive Disk Usage in the Terminal

First PublishedMay 5, 2026ByAtif Alam

dua (Disk Usage Analyzer, Homebrew package dua-cli) is a Rust disk usage tool with an interactive terminal UI.

It highlights rolled-up directory sizes so you see what actually consumes space.

Install

The Homebrew formula ships the dua command:

brew install dua-cli

Check:

dua --version

Interactive Mode

dua i opens the TUI (same as dua interactive):

dua i ~
dua i /Volumes/YourDrive

Navigate with arrow keys, drill into directories with Enter, quit with q. Replace /Volumes/YourDrive with your mount path.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move selection
Enter	Open directory
d	Mark selection for deletion
u	Undo mark
q	Quit
?	In-app help

Bindings can change between releases; ? inside dua i is authoritative.

Deletion marks are destructive once you confirm — prefer dry runs on copies or backups until you trust the workflow.

Aggregate Listing (Non-Interactive)

Without the interactive subcommand, dua aggregates paths you pass (same underlying idea as dua aggregate, alias dua a):

dua /Volumes/YourDrive
dua aggregate /Volumes/YourDrive

dua ~

Use dua aggregate --help for byte format (metric, binary, MiB/GiB, and similar), threads, and --stay-on-filesystem (-x) when you must not cross mounts.

Ignore Apple Metadata Directories

Spotlight, revisions, and event logs can confuse scanners or flood errors. Skip them with repeated --ignore-dirs:

dua i /Volumes/YourDrive \
  --ignore-dirs /Volumes/YourDrive/.DocumentRevisions-V100 \
  --ignore-dirs /Volumes/YourDrive/.Spotlight-V100 \
  --ignore-dirs /Volumes/YourDrive/.fseventsd

Adjust names if your volume uses variants (for example .DocumentRevisions without -V100).

Optional Aliases for ~/.zshrc

# dua — disk usage TUI
alias dh='dua i ~'
alias dv='dua i /Volumes'

Reload source ~/.zshrc. Use dv only when multiple volumes are mounted and you intend to pick one inside the UI.

Compare dua, du, and ncdu

Tool	Role
du / du -sh	Always available; great one-off summaries, no TUI
ncdu	Classic ncurses disk explorer (brew install ncdu)
dua	Rust TUI; interactive dua i plus script-friendly dua <path>

Pick one primary TUI per habit; dua and ncdu overlap for exploration.

Troubleshooting

Operation not permitted or (os error 1)

macOS privacy (TCC) can block reads even when Unix permissions look fine. Grant Full Disk Access to your terminal app and retry — walkthrough in Fix TCC / Full Disk Access on External Disk Permissions and Disk Usage.

Errors Under .Spotlight-V100 or .DocumentRevisions

Use --ignore-dirs as above; those directories are system-managed and rarely belong in manual cleanup via dua.

Want File Names Without Folder Totals

Use eza (listings with color) tree modes; use dua when the question is how much space each subtree uses.