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deadlock
(redirected from Political deadlock)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Legal, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
deadlock [′ded‚läk]
(computer science)
A situation in which a task in a multiprogramming system cannot proceed because it is waiting for an event that will never occur. Also known as deadly embrace; interlock; knot.

deadlock
1. A lock equipped with a dead bolt only.
2. A lock in which a bolt is moved by means of a key or thumb turn, and is positively stopped in its projected position.

(parallel, programming)deadlock - A situation where two or more processes are unable to proceed because each is waiting for one of the others to do something.

A common example is a program waiting for output from a server while the server is waiting for more input from the controlling program before outputting anything. It is reported that this particular flavour of deadlock is sometimes called a "starvation deadlock", though the term "starvation" is more properly used for situations where a program can never run simply because it never gets high enough priority.

Another common flavour is "constipation", in which each process is trying to send stuff to the other but all buffers are full because nobody is reading anything). See deadly embrace.

Another example, common in database programming, is two processes that are sharing some resource (e.g. read access to a table) but then both decide to wait for exclusive (e.g. write) access.

The term "deadly embrace" is mostly synonymous, though usually used only when exactly two processes are involved. This is the more popular term in Europe, while deadlock predominates in the United States.

Compare: livelock. See also safety property, liveness property.


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A US brokered agreement to end the political deadlock in Honduras collapsed earlier this month after de facto leader Roberto Micheletti said he would form a new government without Zelaya.
Marouni Calls for Majoritarian Gov't if Deadlock Continues --Baroud Says Municipal Elections Could be Delayed if No Gov't Minister of Tourism Elie Marouni said Sunday that a majority government should be formed if the current political deadlock continues, the Beirut daily AL MUSTAQBAL reported Monday.
Brussels and Washington unexpectedly announced the meeting last week expressing their serious concern about the political deadlock and need to resume progress towards European integration.
 
 
 
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