"Administrator mode" requested as new feature, to address limitations in maintenance mode

Backgrond

Maintenance mode is a fundamental feature of Nextcloud.

When engaged, the application is not available for normal use from the browser, nor other kinds of clients.

Administrative tasks are accessible, but only from the command line, and only those that involve no database access.

While maintenance mode surely aligns with important use cases, it imposes considerable limitations on available operations.

Many administrative tasks easier to perform from a web application, or require database access, but are also best undertaken when regular client access is disabled.

Regarding which operations an administrator may wish to allow while performing certain maintenance tasks, the distinctions between interaction by web versus console, and between access allowed to database versus not, are not necessarily the most relevant ones in practice.

Request

Proposed is allowing the application to be placed in "administrator mode".

In administrator mode, regular users (those lacking administrative privileges) are blocked from access through a web browser or other client applications. For administrators, operations are blocked if they are regular client requests, such as file transfers, or use of applications.

However, administrators may perform administrative tasks of various kinds through either the web interface or command line, including tasks that access or even modify the database. They may change settings, add or remove applications or users, or access diagnostic features.

Blocking regular use of files and applications is suitable for certain administrative tasks that require transactional integrity.

Notes

The mode may be seen as broadly analogous to single-user mode on Unix-like systems.

No files or tests are named. Start by reviewing the existing maintenance-mode behavior and its web, client, and CLI access paths, then define how administrator mode distinguishes administrators from regular users and regular client requests. Done means the mode consistently enforces those access rules across the described interfaces, including database-affecting administrative tasks.