Deadlock avoidance is an important concept in operating system design that is used to prevent the occurrence of deadlocks, which can result in performance degradation and even system crashes. Deadlocks can occur in complex systems involving multiple processes and shared resources when processes wait for each other to release resources, causing a standstill.
Deadlock avoidance is employed to scrutinize the requests made by processes for resources and evaluate the available resources to determine if the grant of such requests would lead to a deadlock. In cases where granting a request would result in a deadlock, the system denies the request. Here are some techniques to improve at deadlock avoidance in OS as following them:
Eliminate Mutual Exclusion: One of the four conditions that lead to deadlock is mutual exclusion, which cannot be eliminated for some resources, such as tape drives and printers. However, for other resources, it may be possible to allow multiple processes to access them simultaneously, eliminating mutual exclusion and preventing deadlocks.
Eliminate Hold and Wait: Another condition that leads to deadlock is hold and wait, where a process holds a resource while waiting for another resource. This can be eliminated by requiring processes to request all necessary resources before starting execution, or by releasing resources that are not currently being used.
Eliminate No Preemption: The third condition that leads to deadlock is no preemption, where resources cannot be taken away from a process until it releases them voluntarily. Preemption can be used to break deadlocks by forcibly taking resources from one process and giving them to another.
Eliminate Circular Wait: The final condition that leads to deadlock in OS is circular wait, where a circular chain of processes is waiting for resources held by each other. This can be eliminated by imposing a total ordering on all resources and requiring processes to request resources in that order.
Declare Maximum Resource Requirements: In order to avoid deadlocks, processes must declare the maximum number of resources of each type they will need to complete execution. The system can then use a deadlock-avoidance algorithm to dynamically assess the resource-allocation state so that there can never be a circular-wait situation.
Use Detection and Recovery: Another approach to dealing with deadlocks is to detect them when they occur and recover from them. This can involve killing one or more of the processes involved in the deadlock or releasing some of the resources they hold.
By applying these techniques, you can improve your skills in deadlock avoidance in OS. Remember to use paragraphs and lists to organize your content effectively.
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