deadly embrace


deadly embrace

[¦ded·lē im′brās] (computer science) deadlock

deadly embrace

deadlock

deadly embrace

A stalemate that occurs when two elements in a process are each waiting for the other to respond. For example, in a network, if one user is working on file A and needs file B to continue, but another user is working on file B and needs file A to continue, each one waits for the other. Both are temporarily locked out. The software must be able to deal with this. Contrast with livelock.