Chapter-four

Deadlocks
Topics
 The Deadlock Problem
 System Model
 Deadlock Characterization
 Methods for Handling Deadlocks
 Deadlock Prevention
 Deadlock Avoidance
 Deadlock Detection
 Recovery from Deadlock
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
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 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)

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Deadlock

System Model
Resource types R1, R2 . . . Rm
Example of resource types are CPU cycles, memory space, and I/O devices. Each resource type
Ri has Wi instances and Each process utilizes a resource (using system call) as follows:
 request
 use
 release
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.
Note: If above three holds true: Possibility of deadlock, i.e the Existence of deadlock.

Resource-Allocation Graph – a diagram showing allocations

• 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 = {R 1 , R 2 , ..., Rm }, the set consisting of all resource types in the system.
• Request edge - directed edge Pi -> Rj

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• Assignment edge - directed edge Rj -> Pi

Example: - Process
• Resource type with 4 instances

• Pi requests instance of R j

 Pi is holding an instance of R j

Example of a resource-allocation graph with no cycles

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Example of a resource-allocation graph with a cycle

• 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 – Deadlock prevention
 Allow the system to enter a deadlock state and then recover-Deadlock Detection
 Ignore the problem and pretend that deadlocks never occur in the system; used by most
operating systems, including UNIX : Deadlock Avoidance
Deadlock Prevention- Restrain the ways request can be made
Deadlock Prevention provides a set of methods for ensuring that at least one of the
necessary conditions cannot hold true.
 Mutual Exclusion – not required for sharable resources; must hold for non-sharable
resources (is it possible?)
 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
 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

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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,i.e
 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.
Note: 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.

Avoidance algorithms
 Single instance of a resource type
 Use a resource-allocation graph
 Multiple instances of a resource type
 Use the banker’s algorithm

Resource-Allocation Graph Scheme

 Claim edge Pi  Rj indicated that process Pi 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

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Resource-Allocation Graph

Unsafe State in Resource-Allocation Graph

Resource-Allocation Graph Algorithm

 Suppose 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

Banker’s Algorithm:
 Multiple instances
 Each process must do a priori claim of maximum use of resources
 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
Resource Allocation Denial: Referred to as the banker’s algorithm.
 State of the system is the current allocation of resources to process
 Safe state is where there is at least one sequence that does not result in deadlock
 .Unsafe state is a state that is not safe

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Determination of a Safe State

Determination of a Safe State

Determination of a Safe State

Determination of a Safe State

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Determination of an Unsafe State

Deadlock Detection: Allow system to enter deadlock state.

 Detection algorithm
 Recovery scheme
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

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  An algorithm to detect a cycle in a graph requires an order of n2 operations, where n is
the number of vertices in the graph
Resource-Allocation Graph and Wait-for Graph

Resource-Allocation Graph Corresponding wait-for graph

 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 [i] [j] = k, then process Pi is requesting k more instances of resource type. RJ.
 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[i] = true for all i
 P2 requests an additional instance of type C
Request
ABC
P0 000
P1 202
P2 001
P3 100
P4 002

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  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
Detection-Algorithm Usage
 When, and how often, to invoke depends on:
o How often a deadlock is likely to occur?
o 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.
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
– Resources the process has used
– Resources process needs to complete
– How many processes will need to be terminated
– Is process interactive or batch?
 Resource Preemption
– Selecting a victim – minimize cost
– Rollback – return to some safe state, restart process for that state
– Problem: starvation – same process may always be picked as victim, include
number of rollback in cost factor
 Combined Approach to Deadlock Handlin:-Combine the three basic approaches
(prevention, avoidance, and detection), allowing the use of the optimal approach for each
class of resources in the system.
– Partition resources into hierarchically ordered classes.
– Use most appropriate technique for handling deadlocks within each class.

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