Chapter 8: Deadlocks

 System Model
 Deadlock Characterization
 Methods for Handling Deadlocks
 Deadlock Prevention
 Deadlock Avoidance
 Deadlock Detection
 Recovery from Deadlock

Operating System Concepts

 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 tape drives.

 P1 and P2 each hold one tape drive and each needs another one.

Operating System Concepts

 System Model

 Resource types R1, R2, . . ., Rm

CPU cycles, memory space, I/O devices

 Each process utilizes a resource as follows:

 Request: If the request cannot be granted immediately, then the

requesting process must wait until it can acquire the resource.

 Use: The process can operate on the resource.

 Release: The process releases the resource.

Operating System Concepts

 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.

Operating System Concepts

 Deadlock Characterization

 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, P1 is waiting for a resource that is held by

P2, …, Pn–1 is waiting for a resource that is held by

Pn, and P0 is waiting for a resource that is held by Pn.

Operating System Concepts

 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 P1  Rj

 assignment edge – directed edge Rj  Pi

Operating System Concepts

 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

 Example of a Resource Allocation Graph

Operating System Concepts

 Resource Allocation Graph With A Deadlock

Operating System Concepts

 Resource Allocation Graph With A Cycle But No Deadlock

Operating System Concepts

 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

 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.

Operating System Concepts

 Deadlock Prevention

 Mutual Exclusion – not required for sharable resources; must hold for

nonsharable 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, - Low resource utilization;

 or allow process to request resources only when the process has none. -

starvation possible.
 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.

 Deadlock Prevention (Cont.)

 When a process request resources, we check whether they

are available or not.

 If they are available we allocate them else we check that

whether they are allocated to some other waiting process.

 If so we preempt the resources from the waiting process

and allocate them to the requesting process. The

requesting process must wait.

Operating System Concepts

 Deadlock Prevention (Cont.)

 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

 Deadlock Avoidance

Requires that the system has some additional a priori information

available.

 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

 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 safe sequence of all

processes.

Operating System Concepts

 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

 Safe, Unsafe , Deadlock State

Operating System Concepts

 Resource-Allocation Graph Algorithm
 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.

 When a resource is released by a process, assignment edge reconverts

to a claim edge.

 Resources must be claimed a priori in the system.

 Resource-Allocation Graph For Deadlock Avoidance

Operating System Concepts

 Unsafe State In Resource-Allocation Graph

Operating System Concepts

 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

 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].

 Safety Algorithm
1. Let Work and Finish be vectors of length m and n, respectively. Initialize:

Work = Available

Finish [i] = false for i - 1,3, …, n.

2. Find and 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 .
 Resource-Request Algorithm for Process Pi
Request = 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 P i.

• If unsafe  Pi must wait, and the old resource-allocation state is restored
 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

 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

 Example P1 Request (1,0,2) (Cont.)

 Check that Request  Available (that is, (1,0,2)  (3,3,2)  true.

Allocation Need Available
ABC ABC ABC
P0 0 1 0 743 230
P1 302 020
P2 301 600
P3 211 011
P4 002 431
 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

 Deadlock Detection

 Allow system to enter deadlock state

 Detection algorithm

 Recovery scheme

Operating System Concepts

 Resource-Allocation Graph and Wait-for
Graph(Single instance)

Resource-Allocation Graph Corresponding wait-for graph

Operating System Concepts

 Several Instances of a Resource Type

 Available: A vector of length m indicates the number of available

resources of each type.

 Allocation: An n x m matrix defines the number of resources of each

type currently allocated to each process.

 Request: An n x m matrix indicates the current request of each

process. If Request [ij] = k, then process Pi is requesting k more

instances of resource type. Rj.

Operating System Concepts

 Detection Algorithm

1. Let Work and Finish be vectors of length m and n, respectively Initialize:

(a) Work = Available

(b) For i = 1,2, …, n, if Allocationi  0, then

Finish[i] = false; otherwise, Finish[i] = true.

2. Find an index i such that both:

(a) Finish[i] == false

(b) Requesti  Work

If no such i exists, go to step 4.

Operating System Concepts

 Detection Algorithm (Cont.)

3. Work = Work + Allocationi

Finish[i] = true
go to step 2.

4. If Finish[i] == false, for some i, 1  i  n, then the system is in deadlock state.

Moreover, if Finish[i] == false, then Pi is deadlocked.

Algorithm requires an order of O(m x n2) operations to detect

whether the system is in deadlocked state.

Operating System Concepts

 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 0 1 0 000 000
P1 200 202
P2 303 000
P3 211 100
P4 002 002

 Sequence <P0, P2, P3, P1, P4> will result in Finish[i] = true for all i.

Operating System Concepts

 Example (Cont.)

 P2 requests an additional instance of type C.

Request
ABC
P0 0 0 0
P1 201
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

 Detection-Algorithm Usage

 Invoke the deadlock detection algorithm every time a request for

allocation cannot be granted immediately-

– overhead in computation time

 invoke the algorithm at defined intervals—for example, once per hour or

whenever CPU utilization drops below 40 percent

Operating System Concepts

 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?

 Priority of the process.

 How long process has computed, and how much longer to completion.

 what types of resources the process has used (for example,whether the resources are

simple to preempt)
 How many more resources the process needs in order to complete

 How many processes will need to be terminated.

 Is process interactive or batch?

Operating System Concepts

 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

 Combined Approach to Deadlock Handling

 Combine the three basic approaches

 prevention
 avoidance
 detection
allowing the use of the optimal approach for each of
resources in the system.

 Partition resources into hierarchically ordered classes.

 Use most appropriate technique for handling deadlocks

within each class.

Operating System Concepts