Chapter 7: Deadlocks

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Chapter 7: Deadlocks
 System Model
 Deadlock Characterization
 Methods for Handling Deadlocks
 Deadlock Prevention
 Deadlock Avoidance
 Deadlock Detection
 Recovery from Deadlock

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Chapter Objectives

 To develop a description of deadlocks, which prevent

sets of concurrent processes from completing their
tasks
 To present a number of different methods for
preventing or avoiding deadlocks in a computer
system

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 The Deadlock Problem
 Deadlock – two or more processes are waiting indefinitely for an event that
can be caused by only one of the waiting processes

 A set of blocked processes each holding a resource and waiting to acquire a

resource held by another process in the set

 Example
 System has 2 disk drives
 P1 and P2 each hold one disk drive and each needs another one

 Example
 semaphores A and B, initialized to 1

P0 P1
wait (A); wait(B)
wait (B); wait(A)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 8.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Bridge Crossing Example

 Traffic only in one direction

 Each section of a bridge can be viewed as a resource
 If a deadlock occurs, it can be resolved if one car backs up
 preempt resources and rollback
 Several cars may have to be backed up if a deadlock occurs
 Starvation is possible(Starvation – low priority processes may never
execute)
 Note : Most OSes do not prevent or deal with deadlocks

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 8.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Deadlock Principles

 A deadlock is a permanent blocking of a set of threads

 a deadlock can happen while threads/processes are competing for system resources
or communicating with each other

Tanenbaum, A. S. (2001)
Modern Operating Systems (2nd Edition).
Illustration of a deadlock

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 8.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 System Model
 System consists of resources
 Resource types R1, R2, . . ., Rm
CPU cycles, memory space, I/O devices
 Each resource type Ri has Wi instances.
 Each process utilizes a resource as follows:
 request
 use
 release

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Characterization
Deadlock can arise if four conditions hold simultaneously.
 Mutual exclusion: only one process at a time can use a
resource
 Hold and wait: a process holding at least one resource is
waiting to acquire additional resources held by other
processes
 No preemption: a resource can be released only voluntarily
by the process holding it, after that process has completed
its task
 Circular wait: there exists a set {P0, P1, …, Pn} of waiting
processes such that P0 is waiting for a resource that is held
by P1, P1 is waiting for a resource that is held by P2, …, Pn–1
is waiting for a resource that is held by Pn, and Pn is waiting
for a resource that is held by P0.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 8.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Resource-Allocation Graph
A set of vertices V and a set of edges E.
 V is partitioned into two types:
 P = {P1, P2, …, Pn}, the set consisting of all the processes
in the system

 R = {R1, R2, …, Rm}, the set consisting of all resource

types in the system

 request edge – directed edge Pi  Rj

 assignment edge – directed edge Rj  Pi

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Allocation Graph (Cont.)
 Process

 Resource Type with 4 instances

 Pi requests instance of Rj

Pi
Rj
 Pi is holding an instance of Rj

Pi
Rj

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource Allocation Graph Example
 One instance of R1
 Two instances of R2
 One instance of R3
 Three instance of R4
 T1 holds one instance of R2 and is
waiting for an instance of R1
 T2 holds one instance of R1, one
instance of R2, and is waiting for an
instance of R3
 T3 is holds one instance of R3

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 8.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Resource Allocation Graph With A Deadlock

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 Graph With A Cycle But No Deadlock

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Basic Facts

 If graph contains no cycles  no deadlock

 If graph contains a cycle 
 if only one instance per resource type, then deadlock
 if several instances per resource type, possibility of
deadlock

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Methods for Handling Deadlocks
 Ensure that the system will never enter a deadlock
state:
 Deadlock prevention
 Deadlock avoidence
 Allow the system to enter a deadlock state and then
recover
 Ignore the problem and pretend that deadlocks never
occur in the system; used by most operating systems,
including UNIX

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Prevention
Invalidate one of the four necessary conditions for deadlock:

 Mutual Exclusion – not required for sharable resources

(e.g., read-only files); must hold for non-sharable resources
 Hold and Wait – must guarantee that whenever a process
requests a resource, it does not hold any other resources
 Require process to request and be allocated all its
resources before it begins execution, or allow process
to request resources only when the process has none
allocated to it.
 Low resource utilization; starvation possible

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Prevention (Cont.)
 No Preemption –
 If a process that is holding some resources requests
another resource that cannot be immediately allocated to
it, then all resources currently being held are released
 Preempted resources are added to the list of resources
for which the process is waiting
 Process will be restarted only when it can regain its old
resources, as well as the new ones that it is requesting
 Circular Wait – impose a total ordering of all resource types,
and require that each process requests resources in an
increasing order of enumeration

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Avoidance
Requires that the system has some additional a priori information
available
 Simplest and most useful model requires that each process
declare the maximum number of resources of each type
that it may need
 The deadlock-avoidance algorithm dynamically examines
the resource-allocation state to ensure that there can never
be a circular-wait condition
 Resource-allocation state is defined by the number of
available and allocated resources, and the maximum
demands of the processes

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Safe State
 When a process requests an available resource, system must
decide if immediate allocation leaves the system in a safe state
 System is in safe state if there exists a sequence <P1, P2, …, Pn>
of ALL the processes in the systems such that for each P i, the
resources that Pi can still request can be satisfied by currently
available resources + resources held by all the Pj, with j < I
 That is:
 If Pi resource needs are not immediately available, then Pi can
wait until all Pj have finished
 When Pj is finished, Pi can obtain needed resources, execute,
return allocated resources, and terminate
 When Pi terminates, Pi +1 can obtain its needed resources, and
so on

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Basic Facts

 If a system is in safe state  no deadlocks

 If a system is in unsafe state  possibility of deadlock

 Avoidance  ensure that a system will never enter an

unsafe state.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Safe, Unsafe, Deadlock State

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Avoidance Algorithms
 Single instance of a resource type
 Use a resource-allocation graph

 Multiple instances of a resource type

 Use the banker’s algorithm

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Allocation Graph Scheme
 Claim edge Pi  Rj indicated that process Pj may request
resource Rj; represented by a dashed line
 Claim edge converts to request edge when a process requests
a resource
 Request edge converted to an assignment edge when the
resource is allocated to the process
 When a resource is released by a process, assignment edge
reconverts to a claim edge
 Resources must be claimed a priori in the system

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Allocation Graph

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 Unsafe State In Resource-Allocation Graph

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Allocation Graph Algorithm

 Suppose that process Pi requests a resource Rj

 The request can be granted only if converting the
request edge to an assignment edge does not result
in the formation of a cycle in the resource allocation
graph

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Banker’s Algorithm
 Multiple instances

 Each process must a priori claim maximum use

 When a process requests a resource it may have to wait

 When a process gets all its resources it must return them in a

finite amount of time

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example of Banker’s Algorithm

 5 processes P0 through P4;

3 resource types:
A (10 instances), B (5instances), and C (7 instances)
 Snapshot at time T0:
Allocation Max Available
ABC ABC ABC
P0 010 753 332
P1 200 322
P2 302 902
P3 211 222
P4 002 433

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example (Cont.)
 The content of the matrix Need is defined to be Max – Allocation

Need
ABC
P0 743
P1 122
P2 600
P3 011
P4 431

 The system is in a safe state since the sequence < P1, P3, P4, P2, P0>
satisfies safety criteria

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Detection

 Allow system to enter deadlock state

 Detection algorithm

 Recovery scheme

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Single Instance of Each Resource Type

 Maintain wait-for graph

 Nodes are processes
 Pi  Pj if Pi is waiting for Pj

 Periodically invoke an algorithm that searches for a cycle in the

graph. If there is a cycle, there exists a deadlock

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Allocation Graph and Wait-for Graph

Resource-Allocation Graph Corresponding wait-for graph

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example of Detection Algorithm
 Five processes P0 through P4; three resource types
A (7 instances), B (2 instances), and C (6 instances)

 Snapshot at time T0:

Allocation Request Available
ABC ABC ABC
P0 010 000 000
P1 200 202
P2 303 000
P3 211 100
P4 002 002

 Sequence <P0, P2, P3, P1, P4> will result in Finish= true for all p

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example (Cont.)

 P2 requests an additional instance of type C

Request
ABC
P0 000
P1 202
P2 001
P3 100
P4 002

 State of system?
 Can reclaim resources held by process P0, but insufficient
resources to fulfill other processes; requests
 Deadlock exists, consisting of processes P1, P2, P3, and P4

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Detection-Algorithm Usage
 When, and how often, to invoke depends on:
 How often a deadlock is likely to occur?
 How many processes will need to be rolled back?
 one for each disjoint cycle

 If detection algorithm is invoked arbitrarily, there may be many

cycles in the resource graph and so we would not be able to tell
which of the many deadlocked processes “caused” the deadlock.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Recovery from Deadlock: Process Termination

 Abort all deadlocked processes

 Abort one process at a time until the deadlock cycle is eliminated

 In which order should we choose to abort?

1. Priority of the process
2. How long process has computed, and how much longer to
completion
3. Resources the process has used
4. Resources process needs to complete
5. How many processes will need to be terminated
6. Is process interactive or batch?

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Recovery from Deadlock: Resource Preemption

 Selecting a victim – minimize cost

 Rollback – return to some safe state, restart process for that

state

 Starvation – same process may always be picked as victim,

include number of rollback in cost factor

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 End of Chapter 7

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013