Chapter 6

Deadlocks
6.1. Resources
6.2. Introduction to deadlocks
6.3. The ostrich algorithm
6.4. Deadlock detection and recovery
6.5. Deadlock avoidance
6.6. Deadlock prevention
6.7. Other issues

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 Learning Outcomes
• Understand what deadlock is and how it
can occur when giving mutually exclusive
access to multiple resources.
• Understand several approaches to
mitigating the issue of deadlock in
operating systems.
– Including deadlock detection and recovery,
deadlock avoidance, and deadlock
prevention.
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 Resources
• Examples of computer resources
– printers
– tape drives
– Tables in a database
• Processes need access to resources in reasonable
order
• Preemptable resources
– can be taken away from a process with no ill effects
• Nonpreemptable resources
– will cause the process to fail if taken away
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 Resources & Deadlocks

• Suppose a process holds resource A and requests

resource B
– at same time another process holds B and requests A
– both are blocked and remain so - Deadlocked
• Deadlocks occur when …
– processes are granted exclusive access to devices,
locks, tables, etc..
– we refer to these entities generally as resources

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 Resource Access

• Sequence of events required to use a resource

1. request the resource
2. use the resource
3. release the resource

• Must wait if request is denied

– requesting process may be blocked
– may fail with error code

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Two example resource usage patterns
semaphore res_1, res_2; semaphore res_1, res_2;
void proc_A() { void proc_A() {
down(&res_1); down(&res_1);
down(&res_2); down(&res_2);
use_both_res(); use_both_res();
up(&res_2); up(&res_2);
up(&res_1); up(&res_1);
} }
void proc_B() { void proc_B() {
down(&res_1); down(&res_2);
down(&res_2); down(&res_1);
use_both_res(); use_both_res();
up(&res_2); up(&res_1);
up(&res_1); up(&res_2);
} }
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 Introduction to Deadlocks

• Formal definition :
A set of processes is deadlocked if each process in the set is
waiting for an event that only another process in the set can
cause
• Usually the event is release of a currently held
resource
• None of the processes can …
– run
– release resources
– be awakened
7
 Four Conditions for Deadlock
1. Mutual exclusion condition
• each resource assigned to 1 process or is available
2. Hold and wait condition
• process holding resources can request additional
3. No preemption condition
• previously granted resources cannot forcibly taken
away
4. Circular wait condition
• must be a circular chain of 2 or more processes
• each is waiting for resource held by next member of
the chain
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 Deadlock Modeling
• Modeled with directed graphs

– resource R assigned to process A

– process B is requesting/waiting for resource S
– process C and D are in deadlock over resources T
and U
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Deadlock Modeling
A B C

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How deadlock occurs
Deadlock Modeling

(o) (p) (q)

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How deadlock can be avoided
 Deadlock
Strategies for dealing with Deadlocks
1. just ignore the problem altogether
2. detection and recovery
3. dynamic avoidance
• careful resource allocation
4. prevention
• negating one of the four necessary conditions

12
Approach 1: The Ostrich Algorithm
• Pretend there is no problem
• Reasonable if
– deadlocks occur very rarely
– cost of prevention is high
• Example of “cost”, only one process runs at a time
• UNIX and Windows takes this approach for
some of the more complex resource
relationships to manage
• It’s a trade off between
– Convenience (engineering approach)
– Correctness (mathematical approach)
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 Approach 2: Detection and
Recovery
• Need a method to determine if a system is
deadlocked.
• Assuming deadlocked is detected, we
need a method of recovery to restore
progress to the system.

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 Approach 2
Detection with One Resource of Each Type

• Note the resource ownership and requests

• A cycle can be found within the graph, denoting
deadlock
15
 What about resources with
multiple units?
• We need an approach for dealing with
resources that consist of more than a
single unit.

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Detection with Multiple Resources of Each
Type

Data structures needed by deadlock detection

algorithm
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 Note the following invariant
Sum of current resource allocation +
resources available = resources that exist

∑ ij j j
C +
i =1
A = E
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Detection with Multiple Resources of Each
Type

An example for the deadlock detection algorithm

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 Detection Algorithm
1. Look for an unmarked process Pi, for
which the i-th row of R is less than or
equal to A
2. If found, add the i-th row of C to A, and
mark Pi. Go to step 1
3. If no such process exists, terminate.
Remaining processes are deadlocked

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Example Deadlock Detection

E = (4 2 3 1) A = ( 2 1 0 0)

 0 0 1 0  2 0 0 1
   
C =  2 0 0 1 R =  1 0 1 0
 0 1 2 0  2 1 0 0
   

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Example Deadlock Detection

E = (4 2 3 1) A = ( 2 1 0 0)

 0 0 1 0  2 0 0 1
   
C =  2 0 0 1 R =  1 0 1 0
 0 1 2 0  2 1 0 0
   

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Example Deadlock Detection

E = (4 2 3 1) A = ( 2 2 2 0)

 0 0 1 0  2 0 0 1
   
C =  2 0 0 1 R =  1 0 1 0
 0 1 2 0  2 1 0 0
   

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Example Deadlock Detection

E = (4 2 3 1) A = ( 2 2 2 0)

 0 0 1 0  2 0 0 1
   
C =  2 0 0 1 R =  1 0 1 0
 0 1 2 0  2 1 0 0
   

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Example Deadlock Detection

E = (4 2 3 1) A = (4 2 2 1)

 0 0 1 0  2 0 0 1
   
C =  2 0 0 1 R =  1 0 1 0
 0 1 2 0  2 1 0 0
   

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Example Deadlock Detection

E = (4 2 3 1) A = (4 2 2 1)

 0 0 1 0  2 0 0 1
   
C =  2 0 0 1 R =  1 0 1 0
 0 1 2 0  2 1 0 0
   

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Example Deadlock Detection

E = (4 2 3 1) A = (4 2 2 1)

 0 0 1 0  2 0 0 1
   
C =  2 0 0 1 R =  1 0 1 0
 0 1 2 0  2 1 0 0
   

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Example Deadlock Detection

E = (4 2 3 1) A = (4 2 3 1)

 0 0 1 0  2 0 0 1
   
C =  2 0 0 1 R =  1 0 1 0
 0 1 2 0  2 1 0 0
   

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 Example Deadlock Detection
• Algorithm terminates with no unmarked
processes
– We have no dead lock

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Example 2: Deadlock Detection
• Suppose, P3 needs a CD-ROM as well as
2 Tapes and a Plotter

E = (4 2 3 1) A = ( 2 1 0 0)

 0 0 1 0  2 0 0 1
   
C =  2 0 0 1 R =  1 0 1 0
 0 1 2 0  2 1 0 1
   

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 Recovery from Deadlock
• Recovery through preemption
– take a resource from some other process
– depends on nature of the resource
• Recovery through rollback
– checkpoint a process periodically
– use this saved state
– restart the process if it is found deadlocked

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 Recovery from Deadlock

• Recovery through killing processes

– crudest but simplest way to break a deadlock
– kill one of the processes in the deadlock cycle
– the other processes get its resources
– choose process that can be rerun from the
beginning

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 Approach 3
Deadlock Avoidance
• Instead of detecting deadlock, can we
simply avoid it?
– YES, but only if enough information is
available in advance.
• Maximum number of each resource required

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 Deadlock Avoidance
Resource Trajectories

Two process resource trajectories

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 Safe and Unsafe States
• A state is safe if
– The system is not deadlocked
– There exists a scheduling order that results in
every process running to completion, even if
they all request their maximum resources
immediately

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 Safe and Unsafe States
Note: We have 10 units
of the resource

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

Demonstration that the state in (a) is safe

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 Safe and Unsafe States
A requests one extra unit resulting in (b)

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Demonstration that the state in b is not safe

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 Safe and Unsafe State
• Unsafe states are not necessarily deadlocked
– With a lucky sequence, all processes may complete
– However, we cannot guarantee that they will
complete (not deadlock)
• Safe states guarantee we will eventually
complete all processes
• Deadlock avoidance algorithm
– Only grant requests that result in safe states

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 Bankers Algorithm
• Modelled on a Banker with Customers
– The banker has a limited amount of money to loan customers
• Limited number of resources
– Each customer can borrow money up to the customer’s credit
limit
• Maximum number of resources required
• Basic Idea
– Keep the bank in a safe state
• So all customers are happy even if they all request to borrow up to
their credit limit at the same time.
– Customers wishing to borrow such that the bank would enter an
unsafe state must wait until somebody else repays their loan
such that the the transaction becomes safe.

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The Banker's Algorithm for a Single Resource

(a) (b) (c)

• Three resource allocation states

– safe
– safe
– unsafe
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Banker's Algorithm for Multiple Resources

Example of banker's algorithm with multiple

resources
System should start in safe state!
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Banker's Algorithm for Multiple Resources

Example of banker's algorithm with multiple

resources
Should we allow a request by B 1 scanner to
succeed?? 42
Banker's Algorithm for Multiple Resources

Example of banker's algorithm with multiple

resources
Should we allow a request by B and E for 1 scanner
to succeed?? 43
 Bankers Algorithm is not
commonly used in practice
• It is difficult (sometimes impossible) to
know in advance
– the resources a process will require
– the number of processes in a dynamic system

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 Approach 4: Deadlock Prevention
• Resource allocation rules prevent
deadlock by prevent one of the four
conditions required for deadlock from
occurring
– Mutual exclusion
– Hold and wait
– No preemption
– Circular Wait

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 Approach 4
Deadlock Prevention
Attacking the Mutual Exclusion Condition
• Not feasible in general
– Some devices/resource are intrinsically not
shareable.

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 Attacking the Hold and Wait
Condition
• Require processes to request resources before starting
– a process never has to wait for what it needs

• Issues
– may not know required resources at start of run
• ⇒ not always possible
– also ties up resources other processes could be using

• Variations:
– process must give up all resources if it would block hold a resource
– then request all immediately needed
– prone to starvation

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 Attacking the No Preemption Condition

• This is not a viable option

• Consider a process given the printer
– halfway through its job
– now forcibly take away printer
– !!??

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Attacking the Circular Wait Condition

(a) (b)

• Numerically ordered resources

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 Attacking the Circular Wait
Condition
• The displayed deadlock
cannot happen
1 2
– If A requires 1, it must
acquire it before
acquiring 2
– Note: If B has 1, all
higher numbered
resources must be free or A B
held by processes who
doesn’t need 1
• Resources ordering is a
common technique in
practice!!!!! 50
51
 Summary of approaches to
deadlock prevention
Condition Approach
• Mutual Exclusion • Not feasible
• Hold and Wait • Request resources
initially
• No Preemption • Take resources away
• Circular Wait • Order resources

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 Starvation
• A process never receives the resource it is waiting for,
despite the resource (repeatedly) becoming free, the
resource is always allocated to another waiting process.

– Example: An algorithm to allocate a resource may be to give the

resource to the shortest job first
– Works great for multiple short jobs in a system
– May cause a long job to wait indefinitely, even though not
deadlocked.

• One solution:
– First-come, first-serve policy

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