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

Mutual Exclusion: At least one resource must be non-shareable.[1] Only one process can use the resource at any given instant of TIME.

Hold and Wait or Resource HOLDING: A process is currently holding at least one resource and requesting additional resources which are being held by other processes.

No Preemption: The operating system must not de-allocate resources once they have been allocated; they must be released by the holding process voluntarily.

Circular Wait: A process must be waiting for a resource which is being held by another process, which in turn is waiting for the first process to release the resource. In general, there is a set of waiting processes, P = {P1, P2, ..., PN}, such that P1 is waiting for a resource held by P2, P2 is waiting for a resource held by P3 and so on till PN is waiting for a resource held by P1.[1][7]

Thus prevention of deadlock is possible by ensuring that at least one of the FOUR conditions cannot hold.

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

Mutual Exclusion: At least one resource must be non-shareable.[1] Only one process can use the resource at any given instant of time.

Hold and Wait or Resource Holding: A process is currently holding at least one resource and requesting additional resources which are being held by other processes.

No Preemption: The operating system must not de-allocate resources once they have been allocated; they must be released by the holding process voluntarily.

Circular Wait: A process must be waiting for a resource which is being held by another process, which in turn is waiting for the first process to release the resource. In general, there is a set of waiting processes, P = {P1, P2, ..., PN}, such that P1 is waiting for a resource held by P2, P2 is waiting for a resource held by P3 and so on till PN is waiting for a resource held by P1.[1][7]

Thus prevention of deadlock is possible by ensuring that at least one of the four conditions cannot hold.