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

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

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Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 System Model
 System consists of resources
 Resource types R1, R2, . . ., Rm
CPU cycles, memory space, I/O devices, semaphore, mutex
locks,
 Each resource type Ri has Wi instances.
 Each process utilizes a resource as follows:
 request
 use
 release

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Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
  The request and release of resources may be system calls.
 Examples are the request() and release() device, open() and close() file,
and allocate() and free() memory system calls.
 The request and release of semaphores can be accomplished through
the wait() and signal() operations on semaphores or through acquire()
and release() of a mutex lock.
 For each use of a kernel-managed resource by a process or thread, the
operating system checks to make sure that the process has requested
and has been allocated the resource.
 A system table records whether each resource is free or allocated.
 For each resource that is allocated, the table also records the process to
which it is allocated. If a process requests a resource that is currently
allocated to another process, it can be added to a queue of processes
waiting for this resource.

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 – 9th Edition 7.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 7.10 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 7.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example of a Resource Allocation Graph

P1->R1, R2->P1, R2->P2, P2->R3 ….

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource Allocation Graph With A Deadlock

If the graph contains

cycle then Deadlock may
exist.

Deadlock 1: p1->r1->p2->r3->p3->r2->p1

Deadlock 2: p2->r3->p3->r2->p2

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Graph With A Cycle But No Deadlock

In this graph there is a

cycle. But observe that p4
may release its instance of
resource type R2. That
resource can then be
allocated to P3, breaking
the cycle.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.14 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 7.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Methods for Handling Deadlocks
 Ensure that the system will never enter a deadlock state:
 Deadlock prevention
 Deadlock avoidance
 Allow the system to enter a deadlock state and then detect and
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 7.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Prevention
 Mutual Exclusion – Sharable resources, do not require
mutually exclusive access and thus cannot be involved in a
deadlock (e.g., read-only files); must hold for non-sharable
resources.
Problem is: We cannot prevent deadlocks by denying the mutual-
exclusion condition, because some resources are intrinsically
non sharable. For example, a mutex lock cannot be
simultaneously shared by several processes.
 Hold and Wait – must guarantee that whenever a process
requests a resource, it does not hold any other resources
 Protocol 1: Require process to request and be allocated all
its resources before it begins execution.
 Protocol 2: Allow process to request resources only when
the process has none allocated to it.
 Problem is: Low resource utilization; starvation possible

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.17 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
But the problem is: This protocol is often applied to resources whose
state can be easily saved and restored later, such as CPU registers
and memory space. It cannot generally be applied to such resources
as mutex locks and semaphores.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
  Circular Wait – Impose a total ordering of all resource types, and
require that each process requests resources in an increasing order of
enumeration.
 Giving number to resources. So that process requesting in increasing
order.
 Suppose P1 is allocated resource R5. Now if P1 requests for resource
R4 and R3 (which are lesser that R5), such request will not be granted.
Only request for resource greater than R5 will be granted.
 Developing an ordering itself does not prevent deadlock. It is upto
Application developers to write programs that follow the ordering.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Example
/* thread one runs in this function */
void *do_work_one(void *param)
{

pthread_mutex_lock(&first_mutex);
pthread_mutex_lock(&second_mutex);
/** * Do some work */
pthread_mutex_unlock(&second_mutex);
pthread_mutex_unlock(&first_mutex);
pthread_exit(0);
}
/* thread two runs in this function */
void *do_work_two(void *param)
{

pthread_mutex_lock(&second_mutex);
pthread_mutex_lock(&first_mutex);
/** * Do some work */
pthread_mutex_unlock(&first_mutex);
pthread_mutex_unlock(&second_mutex);
pthread_exit(0);
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Example with Lock Ordering
void transaction(Account from, Account to, double amount)
{
mutex lock1, lock2;
lock1 = get_lock(from);
lock2 = get_lock(to);
acquire(lock1);
acquire(lock2);
withdraw(from, amount);
deposit(to, amount);
release(lock2);
release(lock1);
}

Transactions 1 and 2 execute concurrently. Transaction 1 transfers $25

from account A to account B, and Transaction 2 transfers $50 from account
B to account A

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Avoidance

 An alternative method for avoiding deadlocks is to require additional

information about how resources are to be requested.
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
Two deadlock avoidance algorithm are Safe state and resource
allocation graph algorithm.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.22 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 7.23 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 7.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Safe, Unsafe, Deadlock State

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Total current needs are: 9, i.e 9 tape drives are allocated to all processes.
3 tape drives are remaining. P1 needs 2 more. So complete P1 first by giving 2
more resource.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.26 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

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 Resource-Allocation Graph Scheme
 Claim edge Pi  Rj indicated that
process Pi may request resource Rj at
some time in the future; (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 i.e before Pi starts executing
all its claim edge must appear in RAG.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Unsafe State In Resource-Allocation Graph

• 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

• The resource-allocation-graph algorithm is not applicable to a

resource allocation system with multiple instances of each
resource type.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Banker’s Algorithm
 Used when multiple instances of resource available

 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

When a new process enters the system, it must declare the

maximum number of instances of each resource type that it may
need. This number may not exceed the total number of resources in
the system. When a user requests a set of resources, the system
must determine whether the allocation of these resources will leave
the system in a safe state. If it will, the resources are allocated;
otherwise, the process must wait until some other process releases
enough resources.
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Data Structures for the Banker’s Algorithm

Let n = number of processes, and m = number of resources types.

 Available: Vector of length m. If available [j] = k, there are k

instances of resource type Rj available

 Max: n x m matrix. If Max [i,j] = k, then process Pi may request at

most k instances of resource type Rj

 Allocation: n x m matrix. If Allocation[i,j] = k then Pi is currently

allocated k instances of Rj

 Need: n x m matrix. If Need[i,j] = k, then Pi may need k more

instances of Rj to complete its task

Need [i,j] = Max[i,j] – Allocation [i,j]

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Safety Algorithm
1. Let Work (resources) and Finish (process) be vectors of length m
and n, respectively. Initialize:
Work = Available
Finish [i] = false for i = 0, 1, …, n- 1

2. Find an i such that both:

(a) Finish [i] = false
(b) Needi  Work
If no such i exists, go to step 4

3. Work = Work + Allocationi

Finish[i] = true
go to step 2

4. If Finish [i] == true for all i, then the system is in a safe state

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Request Algorithm for Process Pi

Requesti = request vector for process Pi. If Requesti [j] = k then

process Pi wants k instances of resource type Rj
1. If Requesti  Needi go to step 2. Otherwise, raise error condition,
since process has exceeded its maximum claim
2. If Requesti  Available, go to step 3. Otherwise Pi must wait,
since resources are not available
3. Pretend to allocate requested resources to Pi by modifying the
state as follows:
Available = Available – Requesti;
Allocationi = Allocationi + Requesti;
Needi = Needi – Requesti;
 If safe  the resources are allocated to Pi
 If unsafe  Pi must wait, and the old resource-allocation state
is restored

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.33 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 7.34 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

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Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.40 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example: P1 Request (1,0,2)

 Executing safety algorithm shows that sequence < P1, P3, P4, P0, P2>
satisfies safety requirement

 Can request for (3,3,0) by P4 be granted?

 Can request for (0,2,0) by P0 be granted?

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 End of Chapter 7

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