A deadlock in an operating system occurs when two or more processes wait indefinitely for a resource held by the other, resulting in a situation where none of the processes can proceed. When Process A is waiting for a resource held by Process B, and Process B is also waiting for a resource held by Process A, it can result in a deadlock situation if neither process releases the resource they hold.
Deadlock in an operating system can typically involve several processes and various system resources such as CPU cycles, memory, and I/O devices. Deadlock scenarios get more difficult when numerous processes control these resources concurrently in large-scale systems like database servers, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructures
In these situations, deadlocks are particularly problematic because:
Resource Allocation: The operating system routinely assigns resources to processes that request them. However, if other waiting processes hold resources, this might result in a system-wide block that affects multiple interdependent operations.
Threading and Synchronization: Deadlocks can arise in multithreaded systems when locking mechanisms on shared data structures are not properly implemented. If two threads try to lock shared items in a non-coordinated order, they may enter a circular wait.
Communication Deadlocks: Deadlocks can occur in distributed systems or inter-process communication when two processes are waiting for messages or signals from one another.
Deadlocks occur in an operating system when processes enter a waiting state due to resource dependencies that form a cyclic chain, with each process in the cycle waiting for a resource held by the one before it. As a result, the system remains stopped indefinitely. Effective deadlock management is critical in concurrent systems, because numerous processes require synchronized access to shared resources, messages, or signals from one another.