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What is umask ?

When creating a new file or directory linux applies default set of permissions. umask commands lets you change default permissions Who does it apply to ? Owner, Group and Others just like permissions How to view ?

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umask 
umask -S  # Displays current mask as symbolic value
umask -p  # Displays current mask value with prefix umask

How to calculate umask value ?

  • umask value is calculated by subtracting umask value from default permissions
  • System default value permissions are 777(rwxrwxrwx) for folders and 666?(rw-rw-rw-) for files
  • Default mask for non-root user is 002 changing folder permissions to 775(rwxrwxr-x) and file permissions to 664 (rw-rw-r–)
  • Default mask for root user is 022, changing folder permissions to 755(rwxr-xr-x) and file permissions to 644 (rw-r–r–)

How to change umask value ?

  • non-persistent = # umask 0022
  • Persistent = add a line umask 0022 to any of the file below
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vi  ~/.bash_profile # for individual user
vi /etc/bashrc  # systemwide interactive and noninteractive shell ( e.g console, vnc )
vi /etc/profile # systemwide interactive shell

Note: When files are copied or created via ssh, it uses default mask to apply permissions for a new file . If -P flag is used then it will use local permissions.

umask calculator: https://wintelguy.com/umask-calc.pl All Possible umask values: https://www.linuxtrainingacademy.com/all-umasks/

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