3.2.2 Introducing a Sleep Time for Philosopher One

One possible solution to the deadlock potential is for philosopher one to wait before reaching for his chopstick. In terms of the code, he can be put to sleep for a specified amount of time (sleep_seconds) before reaching for his chopstick. If he sleeps long enough, then the program may finish without any actual deadlock. You can specify the number of seconds he sleeps as an argument to the executable. If you do not specify an argument, the philosopher does not sleep.

The following pseudo-code shows the logic for each philosopher:

   while (there is still food on the table)
      {
        if (sleep argument is specified and I am philosopher #1)
           {
             sleep specified amount of time
           }

        grab right fork
        grab left fork
        eat some food
        put down left fork
        put down right fork 
      }

The following listing shows one run of the program in which philosopher one waits 30 seconds before reaching for his chopstick. The program runs to completion and all five philosophers finish eating.

% a.out 30
Philosopher 0 is done thinking and now ready to eat.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 4 is done thinking and now ready to eat.
Philosopher 4: got right  chopstick 4
Philosopher 3 is done thinking and now ready to eat.
Philosopher 3: got right  chopstick 3
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 2 is done thinking and now ready to eat.
Philosopher 2: got right  chopstick 2
Philosopher 1 is done thinking and now ready to eat.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
...
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0: got right  chopstick 0
Philosopher 0: got left chopstick 1
Philosopher 0: eating.
Philosopher 0 is done eating.
Philosopher 4: got left chopstick 0
Philosopher 4: eating.
Philosopher 4 is done eating.
Philosopher 3: got left chopstick 4
Philosopher 3: eating.
Philosopher 3 is done eating.
Philosopher 2: got left chopstick 3
Philosopher 2: eating.
Philosopher 2 is done eating.
Philosopher 1: got right  chopstick 1
Philosopher 1: got left chopstick 2
Philosopher 1: eating.
Philosopher 1 is done eating.
%

Execution terminated normally

Try running the program several times and specifying different sleep arguments. What happens when philosopher one waits only a short time before reaching for his chopstick? How about when he waits longer? Try specifying different sleep arguments to the executable a.out. Rerun the program with or without a sleep argument several times. Sometimes the program hangs, while it runs to completion at other times. Whether the program hangs or not depends on the scheduling of threads and the timings of requests for locks by the threads.