the.com/deadlock
Two processes, each waiting for the other to blink first, forever.
means A standstill in which two or more parties each depend on the other to make the first move, so nothing moves at all.
from A straightforward compound of 'dead' (utterly stopped, no life or motion left in it) and 'lock' (fixed, fastened in place) — first used for stalled negotiations and legislative gridlock before computer scientists borrowed it in the 20th century to describe processes that lock each other out, each clutching a resource the other needs.
- classic example
- two trains waiting at a single-track crossing
- os fix
- break one of four necessary conditions to prevent it
- detection method
- resource allocation graphs reveal circular wait
- real world cousin
- four-way stop where everyone is too polite