The Banker’s or Safety algorithm for finding out whether or not a system is in a safe
state can be described as follows:
• 1) Let Work and Finish be vectors of length ‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively.
Initialize: Work = Available
Finish[i] = false; for i=1, 2, 3, 4….n
• 2) Find an i such that both
a) Finish[i] = false
b) Needi <= Work
if no such i exists goto step (4)
• 3) Work = Work + Allocation[i]
Finish[i] = true
goto step (2)
• 4) if Finish [i] = true for all i
then the system is in a safe state
Bankers Algorithm Example
What will happen if process P1 requests one additional instance of
resource type A and two instances of resource type C?
• Characteristics of Banker's Algorithm
Here are important characteristics of banker's algorithm:
• Keep many resources that satisfy the requirement of at least one client
• Whenever a process gets all its resources, it needs to return them in a
restricted period.
• When a process requests a resource, it needs to wait
• The system has a limited number of resources
• Advance feature for max resource allocation
• Disadvantage of Banker's algorithm
Here, are cons/drawbacks of using banker's algorithm
• Does not allow the process to change its Maximum need while processing
• It allows all requests to be granted in restricted time.
• All processes must know and state their maximum resource needs in
advance.
