Chapter 7

DeadLocks
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)
Bridge Crossing Example

 Traffic only in one direction

 Each section of a bridge can be viewed as a resource
 If a deadlock occurs, it can be resolved if one car backs up (preempt resources and
rollback)
 Several cars may have to be backed up if a deadlock occurs
 Starvation is possible
 Note – Most OSes do not prevent or deal with deadlocks
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 (may cause the process to wait)

 use
 release
Deadlock Characterization

 Deadlocks 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, 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 P0.
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
Resource-Allocation Graph (Cont.)

• Process

• Resource Type with 4 instances

Pi
• Pi requests instance of Rj
Rj

• Pi is holding an instance of Rj Pi
Rj
Resource Allocation Graph With A Deadlock

There is a cycle
and
Deadlock
Graph With A Cycle But No Deadlock

There is a cycle
but
No Deadlock
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
Methods for Handling Deadlocks

 Ensure that the system will never enter a deadlock state

 Deadlock Prevention or Deadlock Avoidance methods

 Allow the system to enter a deadlock state and then recover

 Deadlock Detection needed

 Ignore the problem and pretend that deadlocks never occur in the system;
 Used by most operating systems, including UNIX
 OS does not bother with deadlocks that can occur in applications
Deadlock Prevention

Basic Principle: Restrain the ways requests can be made

 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
Deadlock Prevention (Cont.)
 No Preemption –
 A processing holding resources make requests: if request cannot be granted, release
(preempt) the held resources, and try again later.
 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
Deadlock Prevention (Cont.)
 All resources are ordered and assigned an integer number
 A process can request resources in increasing order of enumeration

Resources

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5

can only request and allocate in this order

Example:
Process 1 Process 2 Process 3
Request R2 Request R1 Request R3
Request R4 Request R2 Request R4
Request R3
Proof
 Consider the resources that are allocated at the moment. Consider the process that has the
highest numbered allocated resource.
 That process will not block; will be able to continue and finish. Because:
 Itcan not make a request to a resource with a smaller number and get block. This will
not happen.
 Itcan make a request to a resource with a larger number. That resource is not allocated
yet (otherwise that would be the highest numbered allocated resource). Hence the
process will get the resource immediately. In this way, that process will not block. Will
be able to run and complete.
 Then,the same thing will be applicable to the process that is holding the next highest
numbered resource. That will be able to run an finish.
 All process may run and finish sooner or later.
Deadlock Avoidance

Basic Principle: 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
to hold simultaneously. (maximum demand)

 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

 A state is safe if the system can allocate resources to each process (up to its maximum) in some
order and still avoid a deadlock.

 We are considering a worst-case situation here. Even in the worst case (process requests up their
maximum at the moment), we don’t have deadlock in a safe state.
Safe state

 More formally: A system state is safe if there exists a safe sequence of all processes (<P1, P2,
…, Pn>) 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
 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.
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.

 When a request is done by a process for some resource(s): check before allocating
resource(s); if it will leave the system in an unsafe state, then do not allocate the
resource(s); process is waited and resources are not allocated to that process.
Safe, Unsafe , Deadlock 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 indicates that process Pi may request resource Rj; represented by a
dashed line

 Claim edge is converted to a request edge when a process requests a resource

 Request edge is converted to an assignment edge when the resource is allocated to the
process
 When a resource is released by a process, assignment edge is reconverted to a claim edge

 Resources must be claimed a priori in the system

Resource-Allocation Graph
Resource-Allocation Graph

P2 requests R2; should we allocate?

Unsafe State In Resource-Allocation Graph
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.
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
at the time deadlock avoidance algorithms is run.

 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]
 An example system state
Available
Existing ABC Initially Available == Existing
ABC
All 10 5 7
10 5 7
resources
in the system state at some t (may change)
system
Need = Max - Allocation
Max Allocation Need
ABC ABC ABC
P0 753 P0 010 P0 743 Available
ABC
P1 322 P1 200 P1 122
332
P2 902 P2 302 P2 600
P3 222 P3 211 P3 011
P4 433 P4 002 P4 431
Notation
X Compare two vectors:
AB C X is a matrix. Ex: compare V with Xi
P0 010
V
Xi is the ith row of the
P1 200
matrix: it is a vector.
P2 302
For example, X3 = [2 1 1]
P3 211 Xi
P4 002

V == Xi ?
V <= Xi ?
V Xi <= V ?
ABC ….
V is a vector; V = [3 3 2]
332
Ex: Compare [3 3 2] with [2 2 1]
[2 2 1] <= [3 3 2]
Safety Algorithm
1. Let Work and Finish be vectors of length m and n, respectively. Initialize:
Work = Available (initialize Work temporary vector)
Finish [i] = false for i = 0, 1, …, n-1
(Work is a temporary vector initialized to the Available (i.e., free) resources at that time when the safety
check is performed)

Allocation Need
2. Find an i such that both: ABC ABC
(a) Finish [i] = false
P0 010 P0 743
(b) Needi  Work
P1 200 P1 122
If no such i exists, go to step 4
P2 302 P2 600
3. Work = Work + Allocationi
Finish[i] = true P3 211 P3 011
go to step 2
P4 002 P4 431

4. If Finish [i] == true for all i, then the system state is safe; o.w. unsafe.
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

Algorithm

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
Resource-Request Algorithm
for Process Pi
 3. Pretend to allocate requested resources to Pi by modifying the state as follows:
Available = Available – Requesti;
Allocationi = Allocationi + Requesti;
Needi = Needi – Requesti;

Run the Safety Check Algorithm:

 If safe  the requested resources are allocated to Pi
 If unsafe  The requested resources are not allocated to Pi.
Pi must wait.
The old resource-allocation state is restored.
Example of Banker’s Algorithm

• 5 processes P0 through P4;

3 resource types: A, B, and C
Existing Resources: A (10 instances), B (5 instances), and C (7 instances)
Existing = [10, 5, 7]
initially, Available = Existing.
Assume, processes indicated their maximum demand as follows:
Max
ABC
P0 753
P1 322 Initially, Allocation matrix will
P2 902 be all zeros. Need matrix will
P3 222 be equal to the Max matrix.
P4 433
Example of Banker’s Algorithm

 Assume later, at an arbitrary time t, we have the following system state:

Existing = [10 5 7] Need =

Max - Allocation
Max Allocation Need Available
ABC ABC ABC AB C
P0 753 P0 010 P0 743 332
P1 322 P1 200 P1 122
P2 902 P2 302 P2 600
P3 222 P3 211 P3 011
P4 433 P4 002 P4 431

Is it a safe state?
Example of Banker’s Algorithm

Allocation Need Available

AB C ABC ABC
P0 010 P0 743 332
P1 200 P1 122
P2 302 P2 600
P3 211 P3 011
P4 002 P4 431

Try to find a row in Needi that is <= Available.

P1. run completion. Available becomes = [3 3 2] + [2 0 0] = [5 3 2]
P3. run completion. Available becomes = [5 3 2] + [2 1 1] = [7 4 3]
P4. run completion. Available becomes = [7 4 3] + [0 0 2] = [7 4 5]
P2. run completion. Available becomes = [7 4 5] + [3 0 2] = [10 4 7]
P0. run completion. Available becomes = [10 4 7] + [0 1 0] = [10 5 7]
We found a sequence of execution: P1, P3, P4, P2, P0. State is safe
Example: P1 requests (1,0,2)
 At that time Available is [3 3 2]
 First check that Request  Available (that is, (1,0,2)  (3,3,2)  true.
 Then check the new state for safety:

Max Allocation Need Available

ABC ABC ABC ABC
P0 753 P0 010 P0 743 230
P1 322 P1 302 P1 020
P2 902 P2 302 P2 600
P3 222 P3 211 P3 011
P4 433 P4 002 P4 431

new state (we did not go to that state yet; we are just checking)
Example: P1 requests (1,0,2)

Allocation Need Available

ABC ABC ABC
P0 010 P0 743 230
P1 302 P1 020
P2 302 P2 600
P3 211 P3 011
P4 002 P4 431
new state

Can we find a sequence?

Sequence is:
Run P1. Available becomes = [5 3 2]
P1, P3, P4, P0, P2
Run P3. Available becomes = [7 4 3]
Yes, New State is safe.
Run P4. Available becomes = [7 4 5]
We can grant the request.
Run P0. Available becomes = [7 5 5]
Allocate desired resources
Run P2. Available becomes = [10 5 7]
to process P1.
P4 requests (3,3,0)?

Allocation Need Available

ABC ABC AB C
P0 010 P0 743 230
P1 302 P1 020
P2 302 P2 600
P3 211 P3 011
P4 002 P4 431
Current state

If this is current state, what happens if P4 requests (3 3 0)?

There is no available resource to satisfy the request. P4 will be waited.

P0 requests (0,2,0)? Should we grant?

Allocation Need Available

ABC ABC ABC
P0 010 P0 743 230
P1 302 P1 020
P2 302 P2 600
P3 211 P3 011
P4 002 P4 431
Current state

System is in this state.

P0 makes a request: [0, 2, 0]. Should we grant.
P0 requests (0,2,0)? Should we grant?

Assume we allocate 0,2,0 to P0. The new state will be as follows.

Allocation Need Available

ABC ABC ABC
P0 030 P0 723 210
P1 302 P1 020
P2 302 P2 600
P3 211 P3 011
P4 002 P4 431
New state
Is it safe?

No process has a row in Need matrix that is less than or equal to Available.
Therefore, the new state would be UNSAFE. Hence we should not go
to the new state. The request is not granted. P0 is waited.