Re: umask

[Dave Sherohman <dave@sherohman.org>]

On Tue, Jan 22, 2008 at 01:17:32PM +0100, Christian Ruffer wrote:
> but it only works for the bash settings. colors and aliases. The umask 
> isn't set :(

If you've found a config file which sets the colors and aliases
correctly, then that file is being run and it *is* setting the umask.
There's just something else which runs after it and changes the umask
back.

Unfortunately, I don't know the order that all the various config files
are processed off the top of my head, nor do I know a good place to look
for that information.  (It's probably in the bash manpage, but that's a
small novel, so finding something like this in it may be difficult.)

What I would do next in your situation would be to run the command

grep -r umask .

in my home directory to find all the files with umask settings in them,
then change/delete any which are setting it to a different value than
the one I want.

Also, how are you verifying that the umask is incorrect?  By using the
"umask" command at the command line or by using a certain program to
create a file and then checking that file's permissions?  If the latter,
be aware that some programs attempt to create files with limited
permissions in the first place and the umask only functions to deny
permissions which are requested by the program creating the file.  It
*never* adds permissions which the program does not request.  (e.g.,
ssh-keygen attempts to create the private key file with permissions 0600
(-rw-------).  There is no way for your umask to cause this file to be
created as group or world readable.  Which is a good thing.)

Additionally, programs started from a GUI menu or desktop icon in X will
run with your X session's umask, not your bash umask, because they're
not started by bash.

So, if running that grep and making sure that there aren't any config
files in your home directory which revert your umask to an undesired
value doesn't get things working for you, we'll need to know how you're
testing the correctness of the umask and, if any files are actually
created to do so, we'll also need to know what program(s) you're using
to create the file(s) and how the program(s) are being started.

-- 
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