umask

gistfile1.txt

Brief summary of umask value meanings:

umask 077 - Assigns permissions so that only you have read/write access for files, and read/write/search for directories you own. All others have no access permissions to your files or directories.

umask 022 - Assigns permissions so that only you have read/write access for files, and read/write/search for directories you own. All others have read access only to your files, and read/search access to your directories.

umask 002 - Assigns permissions so that only you and members of your group have read/write access to files, and read/write/search access to directories you own. All others have read access only to your files, and read/search to your directories.

For more information about what umask does:

How to set your default umask, see this article: http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/understanding-linux-unix-umask-value-usage.html

If you want more detailed information this is an interesting article: http://articles.slicehost.com/2010/7/17/umask-and-unusual-file-permissions-and-types

The answers to this post also offer some insight into umask bits: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4056912/question-about-umask-in-linux