A graphical file system visualization tool for operating systems

Fileshark was developed for the primary purpose of aiding in the teaching of students in file system related courses, particularly at the undergraduate level, by providing a visual representation of often abstract file system ideas. Many teachers find it difficult to teach the file system in detail in a typical operating systems classroom environment due to its abstract nature and the inability to truly observe what is occurring within the file system. Fileshark provides an easy to use interface that can be used by both students and professors to visualize the internal workings of the file system and the processes that allow the file system to read, store and delete data. Such a program also has applications for systems forensics and system security related research. The application described in the following project is the result of those aims. The future goal of this project is for the application to be tested in the classroom setting with the goal of continued implementation into file system related curriculum