What is the difference between deadlock and starvation in OS?
Deadlock and starvation are two phenomena that take place inside the operating system.
Deadlocks
Deadlocks occur when a process needs a resource for the completion of its execution, but that resource is held by another process that waits for some other resource that it needs. This creates a cycle where resources are occupied, and each process lives in a waiting state.
Deadlocks occur when the following conditions hold:
| Condition | Description |
|---|---|
| Mutual Exclusion | No simultaneous access to a shared resource. |
| Hold and Wait | A process is holding a resource and will keep holding until it gets the resource that it is waiting for. |
| No Preemption | In case a process is holding a resource, the resource cannot be taken away until the process voluntarily releases it. |
| Circular Wait | Each process is waiting for a resource that is held by some other process. |
The illustration below shows Process A and Process B in a deadlock:
Starvation
Starvation occurs when processes with high priority execute, whereas processes with low priority wait for an indefinite period of time. Resources are required to execute a process. These include CPU time, memory, and disk space. When a process with higher priority keeps executing, lower priority processes need to wait.
The problem of starvation can be solved using aging.
Aging is the process of increasing the priority of processes that wait for a longer time in the queue.
The illustration below shows lower priority processes starving:
Summary
We can summarize the differences between deadlocks and starvation in the table below:
| Deadlock | Starvation |
|---|---|
| Occurs when two or more processes need some resource held by the other process to complete the execution. | Occurs when lower priority processes wait for the execution of a higher priority process to finish. |
| Also known as circular wait. | Also known as a live lock. |
| Caused by mutual exclusion, hold and wait, no preemption, and circular wait. | Caused by uneven priorities to processes. |
| Can be prevented by avoiding the conditions that lead to it. | Can be prevented using aging. |
Free Resources
