SSC IMD SA 2017 – Question 142

The solution to starvation is:

• Number of rollbacks must be included in the cost factor
• Number of resources must be included in resource acquisition
• Resources should be supplied instead
• All options are correct

Detailed Explanation:

The correct answer is a) Number of rollbacks should be included in the cost factor (रोलबैक की संख्या को लागत कारक में शामिल किया जाना चाहिए).

The Problem of Starvation:

• In deadlock recovery via resource preemption or process termination, victim selection is guided by a minimum-cost policy.
• If cost is evaluated strictly on static parameters (such as CPU time consumed or process priority), the same low-cost process may be chosen as the victim repeatedly. Consequently, this process will be aborted/rolled back again and again, leading to starvation (indefinite postponement).

The Standard Solution:

• To guarantee that starvation does not occur, the number of rollbacks must be included in the cost factor.
• Each time a process is rolled back, its effective cost factor increases. Eventually, its cost becomes high enough that another process will be chosen as the victim instead, ensuring that every process eventually completes.