A deadlock is a situation wherein two or more competing actions are waiting for the other to finish, and thus neither ever does. In the computing world deadlock refers to a specific condition when two or more processes are each waiting for another to release a resource, or more than two processes are waiting for resources in a circular chain.
Under the normal mode of operation, a process may utilize a resource in the following sequence:
Request – when a process needs some resource, it requests for it. Process has to wait if resource is busy.
Use – The process should operate on the resource.
Release – After using, process should release the resource.
Conditions In Which Deadlock Can Arise
• Hold and Wait : As the name suggests, a process is holding a resource and also waiting for some other resources that are held by other process.
• No Preemption : A resource can be released only voluntarily by the process holding it, after that process has completed the task.
• Mutual Exclusion : It means only one process can use the resource at a time. If some other process requests that resource, the requesting process has to wait until the resource is released.
• Circular Condition : There must exist a state of waiting processes in which process P0 is waiting for a resource that is held by P1, P1 waiting for resource held by P2, Pn-1 waiting for resource held by Pn an Pn is waiting for resource held by P0.
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