Abstract: A computer configured for managing multiple processing threads is susceptible to deadlocks or hangs when resources needed by one process are locked by another process that is not progressing. Locking relationships are created and released so quickly that rigidly monitoring these relationships would consume more computer power than are being monitored. An approach to determining the existence of a deadlock or hang uses a first ‘snapshot’ showing an approximation of locking relationships and then verifies a deadlock or hang using a second snapshot to determine if a suspected deadlock or hang is still present.

Abstract: Performing atomic operations on data entities having an arbitrary size is disclosed. Version data is associated with a data entity. The version data is saved to a first attribute. The data entity is then accessed. The saved version data is compared to the current version data. If the two are equal, the data entity is valid.