What defines a deadlock in concurrent programming?

In concurrent programming, a deadlock is defined as a situation where two or more processes are unable to proceed because each is waiting for the other to release resources. This creates a circular wait condition, preventing any of the involved processes from making progress.

When processes enter a state of deadlock, they effectively block each other, as none of them can continue until the others release their resources, leading to system inefficiency and resource wastage. This is a critical issue in concurrent systems, as it can halt program execution and require intervention to resolve the deadlock situation.

The other options do not accurately explain what constitutes a deadlock. A temporary pause in program execution may refer to various states in a program, but it does not imply the specific mutual waiting condition that characterizes deadlocks. An error caused by excessive memory use pertains to resource allocation issues but does not directly relate to the interdependencies of processes in deadlocks. Similarly, a failure to compile source code addresses a pre-runtime issue rather than the runtime behaviors associated with concurrent processes and resource locking.