Q5Operating Systems (Departmental Elective)
Question
2 marks
Define Deadlock.
Answer
Deadlock is a catastrophic system failure where a set of processes are permanently blocked because they are mathematically waiting on each other's resources.
Deadlock is a fatal architectural crisis. It occurs when Process A holds Resource 1 and requests Resource 2, while simultaneously Process B holds Resource 2 and requests Resource 1. Because neither will violently surrender their held resource, both processes mathematically freeze until the end of time.