The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural deadlocks
A standstill resulting from the opposition of two evenly matched forces; a stalemate or impasse. examples
(computing) An inability to continue due to two programs or devices each requiring a response from the other before completing an operation. quotations examples
If synchronization is always performed in least-first order with respect to object tags, then situations can never arise in which one thread has the synchronization lock for x while waiting for y and another has the lock for y while waiting for x. Instead, they will both obtain the locks in the same order, thus avoiding this form of deadlock.
2000, Douglas Lea, Concurrent Programming in Java, Addison-Wesley Professional, page 88
third-person singular simple present deadlocks, present participle deadlocking, simple past and past participle deadlocked
(intransitive) To cause or come to a deadlock. quotations examples
Since we cannot solve this problem completely, it may sometimes be better to use explicit locks and risk deadlock if a thread exits unexpectedly. It may be better to have a deadlocked system than to have a corrupted system.
2004, Scott Oaks, Henry Wong, Java Threads, O'Reilly Media, page 123