Cannot afc shell rm lock file produced by realm databases

[ViRb3]

Test environment

• Host OS version: macOS 14.6.1
• Target device model and iOS version: iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 17.6.1

Describe the bug I'm trying to remove a folder from an app's Documents folder using afc. It works for normal files, but for lock.fifo files created as part of realm databases, the deletion hangs forever and never succeeds. Example structure:

example.realm
example.realm.lock
example.realm.management
├── access_control.control.mx
├── access_control.new_commit.cv
├── access_control.pick_writer.cv
├── access_control.versions.mx
├── access_control.write.mx
└── lock.fifo
example.realm.note

To Reproduce

pymobiledevice3 apps afc com.example.app
cd Documents
rm example.realm.management/lock.fifo

Expected behavior Deletion succeeds

Logs N/A, it just hangs

Additional context N/A

For community

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[ViRb3]

For what is worth, iMazing also errors on the same file, so this may be an issue with Apple's implementation, but I don't know enough to tell.

[doronz88]

This does sounds like an internal device error. You could try to view the syslog for any relevant hints in debugging this:

pymobiledevice3 syslog live -mi lock.fifo

[prosch88]

I have this errors too on realm.db related files. It's not really pmd3 related. You get the same errors with libimobiledevice. If you try to pull these you get "lock.fifo isn't a file". ... Which is quite correct, as fifo "files" don't have content on the filesystem.