The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6
IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition
Copyright © 2001-2003 The IEEE and The Open Group, All Rights reserved.

NAME

umask - set and get the file mode creation mask

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/stat.h>

mode_t umask(mode_t
cmask);

DESCRIPTION

The umask() function shall set the process' file mode creation mask to cmask and return the previous value of the mask. Only the file permission bits of cmask (see <sys/stat.h>) are used; the meaning of the other bits is implementation-defined.

The process' file mode creation mask is used during open(), creat(), mkdir(), and mkfifo() to turn off permission bits in the mode argument supplied. Bit positions that are set in cmask are cleared in the mode of the created file.

RETURN VALUE

The file permission bits in the value returned by umask() shall be the previous value of the file mode creation mask. The state of any other bits in that value is unspecified, except that a subsequent call to umask() with the returned value as cmask shall leave the state of the mask the same as its state before the first call, including any unspecified use of those bits.

ERRORS

No errors are defined.


The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

None.

APPLICATION USAGE

None.

RATIONALE

Unsigned argument and return types for umask() were proposed. The return type and the argument were both changed to mode_t.

Historical implementations have made use of additional bits in cmask for their implementation-defined purposes. The addition of the text that the meaning of other bits of the field is implementation-defined permits these implementations to conform to this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

SEE ALSO

creat() , mkdir() , mkfifo() , open() , the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <sys/stat.h>, <sys/types.h>

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 1. Derived from Issue 1 of the SVID.

Issue 6

In the SYNOPSIS, the optional include of the <sys/types.h> header is removed.

The following new requirements on POSIX implementations derive from alignment with the Single UNIX Specification:

End of informative text.


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