From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932127AbWAOUAb (ORCPT ); Sun, 15 Jan 2006 15:00:31 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932132AbWAOUAb (ORCPT ); Sun, 15 Jan 2006 15:00:31 -0500 Received: from thorn.pobox.com ([208.210.124.75]:42391 "EHLO thorn.pobox.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932127AbWAOUAa (ORCPT ); Sun, 15 Jan 2006 15:00:30 -0500 Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 13:00:24 -0700 From: Paul Dickson To: Ingo Oeser Cc: jengelh@linux01.gwdg.de, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: state terminology Message-Id: <20060115130024.0db8fb1c.dickson@permanentmail.com> In-Reply-To: <200601151058.55369.ioe-lkml@rameria.de> References: <200601151058.55369.ioe-lkml@rameria.de> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 2.1.6 (GTK+ 2.8.9; i686-pc-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 10:58:48 +0100, Ingo Oeser wrote: > Hi Jan, > > On Saturday 14 January 2006 22:34, you wrote: > > Is there a specific term (other than "hang") associated with this > > situation? It's not a "dead-lock", because there is no other process > > (anymore) which could potentially up the semaphore. > > This is a simple "resource leak" (or "semaphore leak" in this case). > > Explanation follows: > > The resource semaphore is not usable by anyone anymore > and is still around. > > Its pretty much the same as a memory leak. There is no one, who > could free the memory anymore. > > The reasons for the resource not being usable anymore is > not significant for a resource leak. > > Also insignificant is the fact that the amount of semaphores > are just limited by available memory. If you repeat starting threads > doing the semaphore leak game from your example, you'll run out > of memory and thus out of semaphores. This is another sign of leakage. > > Do the above explanations sound ok? But it's the functionality rather than the resource that's being lost. So I wouldn't consider it to be a leak. How about "locked-out" or "lock-out"? It's akin to a locked room, with the keys left inside. -Paul