Barber Shop

Barber Shop

A similar problem appears in Silberschatz and Galvin's OS book, and variations of this problem exist in the wild.

A barbershop consists of a waiting room with 'n' chairs, and a barber chair for giving haircuts. If there are no customers to be served, the barber goes to sleep. If a customer enters the barbershop and all chairs are occupied, then the customer leaves the shop. If the barber is busy, but chairs are available, then the customer sits in one of the free chairs. If the barber is asleep, the customer wakes up the barber. Write a program to coordinate the interaction between the barber and the customers.

Solution

First of all, we need to understand the different state transitions for this problem before we devise a solution. Let's look at them piecemeal:

• A customer ...