DEADLOCK

Lecture 6
The Deadlock Problem

• 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.
• P1and P2each 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)
Bridge Crossing Example
• 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
System Model
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
Deadlock Characterization
• „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, …, P0} of
waiting processes such that P0 is waiting for a resource
that is held by P1, P1is waiting for a resource that is held
by P2, …, Pn–1is waiting for a resource that is held by Pn,
and Pn is waiting for a resource that is held by P0
 Resource-Allocation Graph
• 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 P1 →Rj
• „assignment edge –directed edge Rj→Pi
Resource-Allocation Graph (Cont.)
Example of a Resource Allocation Graph
Resource Allocation Graph With A Deadlock
Resource Allocation
Graph With A Cycle But No Deadlock
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.
Methods for Handling Deadlocks
• „Ensure that the system will never enter a deadlock
state.
• „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.
Deadlock Prevention
• Mutual Exclusion–not required for sharable resources;
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.
Low resource utilization; starvation possible.
Deadlock Prevention
• 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.
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.
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 is the systems such
that for each Pi, 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.
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.
Safe, Unsafe , Deadlock State