Deadlocks

• System Model
• Deadlock Characterization
• Methods for Handling Deadlocks
• Deadlock Prevention
• Deadlock Avoidance
• Deadlock Detection
• Recovery from Deadlock
• Combined Approach to Deadlock Handling

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.
• Example
– semaphores A and B, initialized to 1

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

Operating System Concepts

 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

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.
• 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 Pn is waiting for a resource that is held by Po.

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
P
i
Rj
• Pi is holding an instance of Rj
P
i
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, or allow process to
request resources only when the process has none.
– Low resource utilization; starvation possible.

Operating System Concepts

• 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
 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
 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

 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. Operating System Concepts
 Safety Algorithm
[Link] Work and Finish be vectors of length m and n,
respectively. Initialize:
Work = Available
Finish [i] = false for i - 1,3, …, n.
[Link] and i such that both:
(a) Finish [i] = false
(b) Needi ≤ Work
If no such i exists, go to step 4.
[Link] = Work + Allocationi
Finish[i] = true
go to step 2.
[Link] Finish [i] == true for all i, then the system is in a
safe state. Operating System Concepts
 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 Pi.
• If unsafe ⇒ Pi must wait, and the old resource-allocation state
is restored

Operating System Concepts

 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 010 743 230
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

• 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.

• 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.
Operating System Concepts
Resource-Allocation Graph and Wait-for Graph

Resource-Allocation Corresponding wait-for

Graph graph

Operating System Concepts

 Detection Algorithm
[Link] 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.
[Link] an index i such that both:
(a)Finish[i] == false
(b) Requesti ≤ Work

If no such i exists, Operating

go toSystem
step 4.
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

• Five processes P0 through P4; three resource types
A (7 instances), B (2 instances), and C (6 instances).
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.

Operating System Concepts

• P2 requests an additional instance of type C.
Request
ABC
P0 000
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

 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?
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

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