I have PC with installed BOINC but want to manage other BOINC installations from USB flash.

So I stopped that PC's BOINC client, closed manager (and even renamed BOINC data dir).
Then I start another boinc installation in next way (for example):

start \b\boinc.exe --dir \data\04 --skip_cpu_benchmarks --no_info_fetch --suppress_net_info
it runs OK.

Then I attempt to connect to it via BOINC manager but that attempt was succeed only one time (and I even can't deduct why that time differed from other).

I go into \data\04 and launch boinc manager:
\b\boincmgr

manager can't find working client. And attempts to recreate that PC BOINC data directory instead (take it from registry perhaps).

Also I tried to run boinc manager and launch client from it:
\b\boincmgr.exe --boincargs="--dir \data\04 --skip_cpu_benchmarks --no_info_fetch --suppress_net_info"
No success also.

So, what proper way to make link between boinc client launched from command line and boinc manager?

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Will post a working reply when the projects conference call has finished - tied to the wrong desk at present.

OK, conference call over.

Here are a working pair of command lines - first, for the client, and then for a Manager to manage it.

D:\BOINC\boinc.exe --allow_multiple_clients --redirectio --detach_console --gui_rpc_port 31418 --dir D:\BOINCdata2

start D:\BOINC\boincmgr.exe /m /n 127.0.0.1 /g 31418 /p password

These are designed to run a secondary BOINC instance (e.g. for testing) on a machine where a primary client is continuing to run. If you will only ever have one client running at a time, you can lose 'allow_multiple_clients', '/m', and the non-standard port numbers.

My own BOINC program files are in D:\BOINC\ - that's a user choice, so you'll have to substitute your own.

Both my client directories specify the same 8-letter gui_rpc_auth.cfg, as you see here (I don't need BOINC GUI RPCs to pass my perimeter security).

The standard manager startup relies on the DATADIR registry key to find gui_rpc_auth.cfg, so if you don't specify /p, it may fail to pick it up or get the wrong one. Since all comms are over TCP/IP networking, each client/manager pair needs to be constrained to use unique ports and matching passwords so the traffic doesn't get muddled.

You are recommended to use BOINC v7.14.2 for this work - there was a bug which meant you had to start the client with boinc.exe rather than just boinc, and in fixing that bug another bug was introduced. I think both bugs are fixed in 7.14.2

Thanks, Richard.

There is another question then: if I start multiple instances w/o providing direct port number what ports they will use?
Just random ones or in some predictable manner so one could still access to each copy via manager?

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No. Port 31416 is hard-wired as the default.

https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/blob/f14d96d2be2e5a290177f7b5391b0802fbd3756c/lib/common_defs.h#L24

No. Port 31416 is hard-wired as the default.

https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/blob/f14d96d2be2e5a290177f7b5391b0802fbd3756c/lib/common_defs.h#L24

So, if few copies launched they all will try to communicate via same port making communication impossible with all of them?
Cause port option is separate one from allowing few instances option maybe would be more correct to code this BOINC client area to be aware about prev instance (AFAIK BOINC is aware currently - that's why separate option to allow multiple clients are required at all) and, cause prev exists, use shifted port number.

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You can't launch 'few copies' without making a deliberate effort to use the options provided. But if you do want to run multiple copies (as we've discussed several times on these boards), you can both run multiple clients, and control them using multiple managers. It just requires a little bit of reading, a little bit of understanding, and if necessary questions can be asked.

(and it still requires fewer command line parameters than the SETI SoG application :P)