File permission umask howto?

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Thu, 4 Apr 2002, scott at doc.net.au wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 03, 2002 at 10:23:38AM -0500, Ted Zlatanov wrote:
>> Instead of just --chmod, you probably want --file-chmod and
>> --dir-chmod as well.  The logic can get hairy, but there definitely
>> should be a distinction, so we don't end up making files executable
>> unnecessarily.  --chmod should override the other two, I think,
>> rather than trying to overlay permissions.  That would simplify the
>> logic.
> 
> This would be trivial to implement, but I'm really not sure it's
> needed.  This option is akin to the chmod -R command, and it doesn't
> allow this distinction.  As far as making files executable, thats
> where +X comes in - it allows you to set/reset exec permissions if
> and only if it already exists for at least one of user, group or
> other. eg :

Having grown up on Solaris, I was not aware of the GNU +X option
(chmod in Solaris 2.8 doesn't have it, for instance).  That will
certainly do the job.  

Maybe it should be explicitly mentioned as an example in the docs,
considering others beside me may not know the GNU syntax intimately.

Thanks
Ted