Chapter 7: Deadlocks

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Chapter 7: Deadlocks
 System Model
 Deadlock Characterization
 Methods for Handling Deadlocks
 Deadlock Prevention
 Deadlock Avoidance
 Deadlock Detection
 Recovery from Deadlock

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock
 In a multiprogramming environment, several processes
may compete for a finite number of resources.

 A process requests resources; if the resources are not

available at that time, the process enters a waiting state.

 Sometimes, a waiting process is never again able to

change state, because the resources it has requested
are held by other waiting processes. This situation is
called a deadlock.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock
 Perhaps the best illustration of a deadlock can be drawn fromal law passed
by the Kansas legislature early in the 20th century.
 It said, in part: “When two trains approach each other at a crossing, both
shall come to a full stop and neither shall start up again until the other has
gone.”
 A process must request a resource before using it and must release the
resource after using it.
 A process may request as many resources as it requires to carry out its
designated task. Obviously, the number of resources requested may not
exceed the total number of resources available in the system.
 In other words, a process cannot request three printers if the system has
only two.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 System Model
 System consists of resources
 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:
1. Request.
 The process requests the resource. If the request cannot be
granted immediately (for example, if the resource is being used
by another process), then the requesting process must wait
until it can acquire the resource.
2. Use.
 The process can operate on the resource (for example, if the
resource is a printer, the process can print on the printer).
3. Release.
 The process releases the resource.
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Illustration of Deadlock
 To illustrate a deadlocked state, consider a system with three CD RW
drives.
 Suppose each of three processes holds one of these CDRW
drives.
 If each process now requests another drive, the three processes
will be in a deadlocked state.
 Each is waiting for the event “CD RW is released,” which can be
caused only by one of the other waiting processes.
 This example illustrates a deadlock involving the same resource
type.
 Deadlocks may also involve different resource types.
 Consider a system with one printer and one DVD drive.
 Suppose that process Pi is holding the DVD and process Pj is
holding the printer. If Pi requests the printer and Pj requests the
DVD drive, a deadlock occurs.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Characterization
Deadlock can arise if four conditions hold simultaneously.
 Mutual exclusion: only one process at a time can use a
resource (At least one resource is non-shareable)
 Hold and wait: a process holding at least one resource is
waiting to acquire additional resources held by other
processes
 No preemption: Resources cannot be preempted; that is, 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.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock with Mutex Locks
 Deadlocks can occur via system calls, locking, etc.
 See example box in text page 318 for mutex deadlock

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 Pi  Rj

 assignment edge – directed edge Rj  Pi

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 7.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Request and Assignment of Resource
 When process Pi requests an instance of resource type Rj, a request edge
is inserted in the resource-allocation graph.
 When this request can be fulfilled, the request edge is instantaneously
transformed to an assignment edge.
 When the process no longer needs access to the resource, it releases the
resource.
 As a result, the assignment edge is deleted.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example of a Resource Allocation Graph

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource Allocation Graph With A Deadlock

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Graph With A Cycle But No Deadlock

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 7.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Methods for Handling Deadlocks
 Ensure that the system will never enter a deadlock state:
 Deadlock prevention
 Deadlock prevention provides a set of methods to ensure that
at least one of the necessary conditions cannot hold.
 Deadlock avoidance
 requires that the operating system be given additional information
in advance concerning which resources a process will request
and use during its lifetime. Hence the operating system can
decide for each request whether or not the process should wait.
 To decide whether the current request can be satisfied or must
be delayed, the system must consider the resources currently
available, the resources currently allocated to each process, and
the future requests and releases of each process.
 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 – 9th Edition 7.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Important

 If a system does not employ either a deadlock-prevention or a

deadlock avoidance algorithm, then a deadlock situation may arise.
 In this environment, the system can provide an algorithm that
examines the state of the system to determine whether a deadlock
has occurred and an algorithm to recover from the deadlock (if a
deadlock has indeed occurred).
 In the absence of algorithms to detect and recover from deadlocks,
we may arrive at a situation in which the system is in a deadlocked
state yet has no way of recognizing what has happened.
 In this case, the undetected deadlock will cause the system’s
performance to deteriorate, because resources are being held by
processes that cannot run and because more and more processes,
as they make requests for resources, will enter a deadlocked state.
 Eventually, the system will stop functioning and will need to be
restarted manually.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Prevention
Restrain the ways request can be made

 Mutual Exclusion – not required for sharable resources

(e.g., read-only files); 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
allocated to it.
 Low resource utilization; starvation possible

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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
 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 – 9th Edition 7.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example
 Formally, we define a one-to-one function F: R→N, where N is the
 set of natural numbers. For example, if the set of resource types R includes
 tape drives, disk drives, and printers, then the function F might be defined
as follows:
F(tape drive) = 1
F(disk drive) = 5
F(printer) = 12
 We can now consider the following protocol to prevent deadlocks:
 Each process can request resources only in an increasing order of
enumeration.
 Thatis, a process can initially request any number of instances of a
resource type —say, Ri. After that, the process can request instances of
resource type Rj if and only if F(Rj ) > F(Ri ).
 For example, a process that wants to use the tape drive and printer at
the same time must first request the tape drive and then request the
printer

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 7.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 in the systems such that for each P i, 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 7.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Safe, Unsafe, Deadlock State

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Safe and Unsafe state

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Safe states

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Unsafe states

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Avoidance Algorithms
 Single instance of a resource type
 Use a resource-allocation graph

 Multiple instances of a resource type

 Use the banker’s algorithm

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Allocation Graph Scheme
 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
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Allocation Graph

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Unsafe State In Resource-Allocation Graph

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Allocation Graph Algorithm

 Suppose that 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Banker’s Algorithm

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Banker’s Algorithm for a single resource

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Banker’s Algorithm for a single resource

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock condition

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 7.39 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 An Example-Banker’s algorithm
Processes Allocation Maximum Currently Remaining
need Available need
A B C A B C A B C A B C
P1 0 1 0 7 5 3 3 3 2 7 4 3
P2 2 0 0 3 2 2 5 3 2 1 2 2
P3 3 0 2 9 0 2 7 4 3 6 0 0
P4 2 1 1 4 2 2 7 4 5 2 1 1
P5 0 0 2 5 3 3 7 5 5 5 3 1
7 2 5 10 5 7

Total Resources A = 10, B=5, C=7

Remaining need < = Current Availability
Currently available = Total Available – Total
Allocation

Remaining need = Maximum need – Allocation

Safe Sequence: P2 , P4, P5,

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.40 P1, P3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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]

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Safety Algorithm
1. Let Work and Finish be vectors of length m and n, respectively.
Initialize:
Work = Available
Finish [i] = false for i = 0, 1, …, n- 1

2. Find an 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Request Algorithm for Process Pi

Requesti = 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 – 9th Edition 7.43 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 7.44 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 7.45 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example: P1 Request (1,0,2)
 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 302 600
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 – 9th Edition 7.46 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock Detection

 Allow system to enter deadlock state

 Detection algorithm

 Recovery scheme

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.47 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

 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 – 9th Edition 7.48 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resource-Allocation Graph and Wait-for Graph

Resource-Allocation Graph Corresponding wait-for graph

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.49 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 [i][j] = k, then process Pi is
requesting k more instances of resource type Rj.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.50 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 7.51 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 7.52 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 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 – 9th Edition 7.53 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example (Cont.)

 P2 requests an additional instance of type C

Request
ABC
P0 000
P1 202
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 – 9th Edition 7.54 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Detection-Algorithm Usage
 When, and how often, to invoke depends on:
 How often a deadlock is likely to occur?
 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.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.55 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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?

1. Priority of the process
2. How long process has computed, and how much longer to
completion
3. Resources the process has used
4. Resources process needs to complete
5. How many processes will need to be terminated
6. Is process interactive or batch?

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 7.56 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 7.57 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 End of Chapter 7

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013