What deadlock strategy is used in windows xpunixlinux operating systems?

Answer 1

There was, at one time, a one word answer to this question and that answer was:

ostrich

Referring to the ostrich algorithm I believe, meaning to stick one's head in the sand rather than deal with a particularly complex and bedeviling problem. In reality, there are strategies for handling deadlocks. This topic is very complexand generally not for the novice developer.

One good paper on this topic was written by Tong Li, Carla S. Ellis, Alvin R. Lebeck and Daniel J. Sorin (Department of Computer Science, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University) and presented at the 2005 USENIX Annual Technical Conference in Anaheim, California.

Their paper may be found here:

http://people.ee.duke.edu/~sorin/papers/usenix05_deadlock.pdf

In practice, depending on the application, the problem may be so rare as to be hardly worth the often considerable time and effort required to construct a handler for those rare exceptions.

Anecdotally, I have encountered deadlock situations several times in the last 25 years, usually while writing applications using named pipes (FIFO), in each case I devised my own solution designed to suit the particular situation encountered. By no means a panacea, nor do I recommend this technique.

May I suggest the author of the question consider devising a universal solution for the rest of us... A general purpose, all weather solution would certainly be appreciated. :)

Answer 2

ostrich