Where do I set umasks for individual users?

dougnc · September 17, 2009, 4:18pm

I have to use two logins, one for local logins to run compiz and one for remote logins.

I want to set umask to 7 for those two users, so one user can access the other users files.

Where do I do this? It’s not in Yast and there’s no /etc/profile.local.

I’m running SuSE 11.1 with KDE 4.1

hcvv · September 17, 2009, 4:57pm

There isn’t, but you can create one. Inside /etc/profile there is a test for existance, when yes it is sourced.

BTW you can set this for the users, but the users can change this at their own will either in their own profile or at any moment in the CLI.

dmera · September 17, 2009, 4:59pm

you can setup new users in the Yast->Security and Users.
They can be part of a different group so setup the new group then setup the users and you can setup the umask in one of the tabs. I just did it myself and was able to login both and had rights to see the files in the other user home and modify them.

dougnc · September 17, 2009, 8:31pm

Thanks. The only mask I could find in the tabs was one for home directory. But I set that to 7 and the login umask was changed to 7 as well.

hcvv · September 18, 2009, 11:05am

Forgive me if I am wrong, but you seem to miss the function of umask a bit.
This mask is not connected to a particular directory. The mask is used at creation of a directory/file. When a process wants to create a directory/file (by asking the kernel) it does also provide the access bits it wants to give it. Then the ruling umask (part of the environment of the running process at that moment in time) is taken to mask out some of those access bits (if set of course).

Examples:
When the process (running program) wants to create with rw-rw-rw (read/write for all) and the umask is 770 the bits will be rw-rw----.
When the process (e.g. a compiler that creates an executable program) wants to create with rwxr-xr-x (write by the user and read/execute by all) and the umask is again 770 the result will be rwxr-x—.

The umask set for the user in YaST is only set at a login of the user. (S)he can change this at any time (for the current and forked processes). And of course, using chmod (s)he can change any access bits of direcories/files (s)he owns. So it is not “the login umask was changed to 7 as well”, but that is exactly what it does and NOT AT ALL “for home directory”.