Currently we need a shell or a monitor attached to the host if we want to do changes like update the core client, modify, add or delete app_info.xml or global_prefs_override.xml.

What about this :

If BOINC detects a file "suspend.req" in the BOINC directory, it stops all project clients, spawns a little program that
- renames "suspend.req" to "suspend.ack"
- waits until "suspend.ack" disappears
- restarts BOINC.

Then BOINC exits and gives us the chance to do all maintenance that needs to be done just with file access (FTP, LAN), no need for a shell or a monitor on that remote box.

When the maintenance is done, we delete the file "suspend.ack", the little program doesn't see the file anymore, spawns the BOINC client and then exits.
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Another advantage of this mimik would be that it would easily be possible to pause BOINC from any other task that requires that BOINC does not run, like backups or programs that need all CPU and RAM for themselves.

I know that this whole thing can be done easily with a Unix script by finding the BOINC PID, killing it and restarting it later but for Windows there is not such a simple solution.

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Currently we need a shell or a monitor attached to the host if we want to do changes like update the core client, modify, add or delete app_info.xml or global_prefs_override.xml.

What about this :

If BOINC detects a file "suspend.req" in the BOINC directory, it stops all project clients, spawns a little program that
- renames "suspend.req" to "suspend.ack"
- waits until "suspend.ack" disappears
- restarts BOINC.

Then BOINC exits and gives us the chance to do all maintenance that needs to be done just with file access (FTP, LAN), no need for a shell or a monitor on that remote box.

When the maintenance is done, we delete the file "suspend.ack", the little program doesn't see the file anymore, spawns the BOINC client and then exits.
_____________________

Another advantage of this mimik would be that it would easily be possible to pause BOINC from any other task that requires that BOINC does not run, like backups or programs that need all CPU and RAM for themselves.

I know that this whole thing can be done easily with a Unix script by finding the BOINC PID, killing it and restarting it later but for Windows there is not such a simple solution.

I agree that the functionality you described would be nice to have.

The functionality you described as a nice side effect is already available: by using boinc_cmd you can suspend and resume BOINC eaisly even in Windows.

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Metod ...

Suspending BOINC with boinc_cmd will not free all ressources (open files, RAM) so it is not exactly the same.