Explain the various methods for handling deadlocks.
A set of processes is deadlocked if every process in the set is waiting for an event that only a process in the set is able to cause. Deadlock be able to occur whenever two or more processes are competing for limited resources and the processes are allowed to acquire and hold a resource (obtain a lock) so preventing others from using the resource while the process waits for other resources.
There are 4 essential conditions for deadlock to occur:
1. Mutual exclusion
2. Hold and wait
3. Non-preemption
4. Circular wait:
The dissimilar methods used by OS for handling deadlocks are:
a) Deadlock detection and recovery
b) Deadlock prevention
c) Deadlock avoidance