Set/Change the default Umask…

Open Terminal, and then type this command, followed by the Return key:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences NSUmask #

defaults write -g NSUmask -int #

The first sets the system default, the second sets the per-user default. The NSUmask may not be honored by software that has not been adapted for OS X. # is the umask (per umask(2)). It may, however, be in decimal instead of octal.

Many Ayromlou

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2 responses to “Set/Change the default Umask…”

  1. This does not work in 10.5. The only posted solution (adding a umask command to /etc/launchd.conf) could effect the creation of system files (like logs). This could be a bad thing.

    Apple appears to have screwed this up, much as they did when they released the early versions of OSX.

  2. Hi Anonymous,

    Yep, You’re 100% correct. This tip works for 10.4 and lower. I’ve seen the launchd.conf way for leopard, but since it changes it system wide it causes problems in our environment. If you have a certain directory in mind may I point you at my other posting:

    http://www.nerdlogger.com/2007/10/osx-webmaster-special-shared-webserver.html

    which might help. It’s basically a script that will go through a directory recursively and does a predefined chmod on all the NEW files. We needed this for our website since we have multiple people working on content at the same time who upload stuff using sftp all the time.

    Anways, hope this helps.

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