Can the semaphore be lower than 0? I mean, say I have a semaphore with N=3 and I call "down" 4 times, then N will remain 0 but one process will be blocked?

And same the other way, if in the beginning I call up, can N be higher than 3? Because as I see it, if N can be higher than 3 if in the beginning I call up couple of times, then later on I could call down more times than I can, thus putting more processes in the critical section then the semaphore allows me.

If someone would clarify it a bit for me I will much appreciate.

Greg

java multithreading computer-science semaphore
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