Top 10 List of Week 07

1. Script to detect deadlocks in C/C++ code in GNU Debugger
   This script will help you automate deadlock detection in compiled C/C++ code with GNU Debugger. I think this is interesting because deadlock detection itself is an NP-hard problem.

2. Banker’s Algorithm
   Banker’s Algorithm is a resource allocation and deadlock avoidance algorithm by simulating the allocation of predetermined possible amounts of all resources. This algorithm is used majorly on banking systems to avoid deadlock and identify whether a loan will be given or not.

3. You’ve met Deadlocks, but what about Livelocks?
   TL;DR Livelock is another concurrency problem and is similar to deadlock. Livelock, two or more threads keep on transferring states between one another instead of waiting infinitely. Because of that the threads are not able to perform their respective tasks.

4. The Dining Philosophers Problem (and solution)
   The Dining Philosophers Problem is an interesting problem because it introduces management of scarce, shared resources but is quite tricky because naive solution will always result in deadlocks. This article breaks down the problem and help us understand the solution without introducing deadlocks.

5. Mutex Synchronization in Linux with Pthreads (Video)
   Pretty much what the title says. It’s a demo on how to use mutex using pthread.h. This would help you understand mutexes because the video will show you the solution from naive solution to proper mutexes as well as explaining each step’s pros and cons.

6. What the hell is Futex!?
   You might have heard about mutex, but do you know there’s a thing called Futex? Futex stands for “Fast Userspace Mutex”. As the name suggest, it’s just mutex in userspace to favor performance. This article explain the basics of futex and also provide code examples you can try.

7. Introduction to Spinlocks
   Spinlocks is another synchronization mechanism which consist of two states: acquired and released. However, I don’t think Spinlocks is as popular as semaphore and mutex since it’s quite difficult for me to find this site. But it’s a neat knowledge never the less.

8. Spinlocks Considered Harmful
   Not long after I discovered Spinlocks, I also discovered why spinlocks is not as popular as other synchronization mechanism. It is apparently quite dangerous and generally not recommended it full of flaws. The article provide examples in rust that you can try.

9. Sequence Lock (seqlock) in Linux Kernel
   Seqlocks is very useful synchronization mechanism to provide a lightweight and scalable lock for the scenario where many readers and a few writers are present. With seqlocks you can avoid writer starvation. This article is very neat to read and gives detailed info about seqlocks.

10. The Sleeping Barber problem
    Yet another classic IPC (inter-process communication) problem. This article covers how we can approach the problem and eventually came with a solution and a visualization as well to help understand the solution better. I highly recommend you to read this article.

That’s all folks, hope you all doing well. See you on Week 08.