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deadlock

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deadlock

 

  4  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Deadlock  \Dead"lock`\,  n. 
  1.  A  lock  which  is  not  self-latching,  but  requires  a  key  to 
  throw  the  bolt  forward. 
 
  2.  A  counteraction  of  things  which  produces  an  entire 
  stoppage;  a  complete  obstruction  of  action 
 
  Things  are  at  a  deadlock.  --London 
  Times. 
 
  The  Board  is  much  more  likely  to  be  at  a  deadlock  of 
  two  to  two  --The  Century. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  deadlock 
  n  :  a  situation  in  which  no  progress  can  be  made:  "reached  an 
  impasse  on  the  negotiations"  [syn:  {impasse},  {stalemate}, 
  {standstill}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  deadlock  n.  1.  [techspeak]  A  situation  wherein  two  or  more 
  processes  are  unable  to  proceed  because  each  is  waiting  for  one  of  the 
  others  to  do  something  A  common  example  is  a  program  communicating  to  a 
  server,  which  may  find  itself  waiting  for  output  from  the  server  before 
  sending  anything  more  to  it  while  the  server  is  similarly  waiting  for 
  more  input  from  the  controlling  program  before  outputting  anything 
  (It  is  reported  that  this  particular  flavor  of  deadlock  is  sometimes 
  called  a  `starvation  deadlock',  though  the  term  `starvation'  is  more 
  properly  used  for  situations  where  a  program  can  never  run  simply 
  because  it  never  gets  high  enough  priority.  Another  common  flavor  is 
  `constipation',  in  which  each  process  is  trying  to  send  stuff  to  the 
  other  but  all  buffers  are  full  because  nobody  is  reading  anything.) 
  See  {deadly  embrace}.  2.  Also  used  of  deadlock-like  interactions  between 
  humans,  as  when  two  people  meet  in  a  narrow  corridor,  and  each  tries  to 
  be  polite  by  moving  aside  to  let  the  other  pass,  but  they  end  up  swaying 
  from  side  to  side  without  making  any  progress  because  they  always  move 
  the  same  way  at  the  same  time. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  deadlock 
 
    A  situation  where  two  or  more 
  {processes}  are  unable  to  proceed  because  each  is  waiting  for 
  one  of  the  others  to  do  something 
 
  A  common  example  is  a  program  waiting  for  output  from  a  server 
  while  the  server  is  waiting  for  more  input  from  the 
  controlling  program  before  outputting  anything  (It  is 
  reported  that  this  particular  flavour  of  deadlock  is  sometimes 
  called  a  "starvation  deadlock",  though  the  term  starvation" 
  is  more  properly  used  for  situations  where  a  program  can  never 
  run  simply  because  it  never  gets  high  enough  priority. 
 
  Another  common  flavour  is  "constipation",  in  which  each 
  process  is  trying  to  send  stuff  to  the  other  but  all  buffers 
  are  full  because  nobody  is  reading  anything).  See  {deadly 
  embrace}. 
 
  Another  example,  common  in  {database}  programming,  is  two 
  processes  that  are  sharing  some  resource  (e.g.  read  access  to 
  a  {table})  but  then  both  decide  to  wait  for  exclusive 
  (e.g.  write)  access 
 
  The  term  "deadly  embrace"  is  mostly  synonymous,  though  usually 
  used  only  when  exactly  two  processes  are  involved.  This  is 
  the  more  popular  term  in  Europe,  while  {deadlock}  predominates 
  in  the  United  States. 
 
  Compare:  {livelock}.  See  also  {safety  property},  {liveness 
  property}. 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
  (2000-07-26)




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