CODEWITHSUNDEEP
concurrencysynchronizationdeadlockrace-condition
Garrick
Garrick

Reputation: 689

what is synchronization - a property?

I am having a general doubt regarding synchronization ->

When we say mutual exclusion is satisfied between 2 processes, i mean it is property which is desirable. It is not a problem to be solved.

Similarly, deadlock, race condition are problems to be solved

So, synchronization is also a property which should be maintained, that is, "Is it something desirable" or "a problem which needs to be solved" ?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 71

Answers (1)

Nathan Hughes
Nathan Hughes

Reputation: 96385

The desireable properties are

  • thread-safety, or preserving the integrity of some data structure from changes made concurrently that could corrupt the contents of that data structure, and

  • liveness, which is the ability of your threads to make progress.

Synchronization is a means to the end of preserving the integrity of shared data without impeding liveness. It is only one of a number of techniques which aim at preserving thread safety.

Synchronization can become a problem if you have a deadlock, or if a bottleneck develops (if too many threads need to acquire the same lock and most of them can't make progress), so that the program may be thread-safe but liveness becomes an issue.

Upvotes: 1

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