In concurrent programming, a deadlock is a situation in which two or more competing actions are each waiting for the other to finish, and thus neither ever does.

In a transactional database, a deadlock happens when two processes each within its own transaction updates two rows of information but in the opposite order. For example, process A updates row 1 then row 2 in the exact timeframe that process B updates row 2 then row 1. Process A can't finish updating row 2 until process B is finished, but process B cannot finish updating row 1 until process A is finished. No matter how much time is allowed to pass, this situation will never resolve itself and because of this, database management systems will typically kill the transaction of the process that has done the least amount of work.

In an operating system, a deadlock is a situation which occurs when a process or thread enters a waiting state because a resource requested is being held by another waiting process, which in turn is waiting for another resource held by another waiting process. If a process is unable to change its state indefinitely because the resources requested by it are being used by another waiting process, then the system is said to be in a deadlock.

Deadlock is a 1970 West German spaghetti western directed by Roland Klick. It is perhaps best known today for the soundtrack supplied by Can. It is found on the 1970 Can album Soundtracks.

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Deadlock is a detective novel by Sara Paretsky told in the first person by private eye (Vic) V. I. Warshawski.

Plot

Vic goes to the Chicago port to find out about her cousin Boom Boom's death. She believes that Boom Boom was killed. The police believe that this ex-Black Hawks hockey player died in an accident. Vic starts digging for motive and evidence. After two attempts on her life, she finally thinks she has the murder solved but needs strong evidence. To get it, she goes to the yacht of a shipping magnate but is caught by the magnate while she is gathering evidence against him. He confronts her and tells her she is going to die. The book, the second in which Warshawski, a crucial figure in a new breed of female detectives in detective literature, appears, is the basis of the film V.I. Warshawski, starring Kathleen Turner in the title role.

The author was given an award by the Friends of American Writers for the book.

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