[yvsanil]

Default access permissions
When you create a file or directory its access permissions are set to a default value. These are usually:

rw-------
gives you read and write permission for your files; no access permissions for the group or others.
rwx------
gives you read write and execute permission for your directories; no access permissions for the group or others.
Access permissions for your home directory are usually set to rwx--x--x or rwxr-xr-x.

Changing default access permissions
You will need to understand how to set file access permissions numerically before reading this section.

Every time you create a file or a directory, its access permissions are set to a predetermined value. This value is defined by the file-creation mode mask.

To display the value of this mask enter the command:

umask

This will produce something like:

077

Sometimes the 0 (zero) is omitted. The values might be different on your system.

Without the mask the system would set permissions of 666 for files and 777 for directories when first created. The values in the mask are subtracted from these values to give a default value for access permissions for the files and directories created by you.

For example:

777 (system value for directories)
-077 (value of the umask)
---
700 (default access permission of
rwx------)

To change your default access permissions you use the command:

umask nnn

Each "n" is a number from 0 to 7.

[ScottHughes]

The control panel I use allows me to change these without using those numbers. I just click boxes.