[texhax] Aha Moment; umask

[Thomas Schneider]

Herb:

> Was there a place mentioned in that article that Dick Koch pointed
> to where you can place a simple file that would produce what you
> wish; i.e., umask is 077 for your personal files/folders but the
> sysetm default isn't changed. It appears that using `umask 077`
> inside a shell changes the system default and, I suspect, the
> personal default picks its value from the system default.

As I currently understand it, one cannot change the system default AT
ALL as a user.  Of course.  That would be a terrible security problem!

When I invoke a shell, I can set the umask for that shell.  I set it
to 077 for my personal files.

But testing your idea - I find that when I remove my setting, the
umask becomes 22.  That's the system wide setting.

When from inside that shell I run sudo on a script, that script
inherits MY umask and applies it to the SYSTEM files.  It's not
appropriate.  The solutions I know are to fix the permissions of the
system files if needed at the end of texlive installation or to have
the script (that is run by sudo) set its own umask.

Tom

  Thomas D. Schneider, Ph.D.
  Senior Investigator
  National Institutes of Health
  National Cancer Institute
  Center for Cancer Research
  Gene Regulation and Chromosome Biology Laboratory
  Molecular Information Theory Group
  Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
  schneidt at mail.nih.gov
  http://schneider.ncifcrf.gov/(current link)
  http://alum.mit.edu/www/toms (permanent link)