/etc/profile question

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April 15th, 2008, 11:55 AM

linuxChique

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/etc/profile question

What do these two lines do?

Code:

umask 022

. /etc/environment

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April 15th, 2008, 01:33 PM

Ehlanna

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The umask will control what permissions a file or directory will get when created - the mechanism is a bit bass-ackward

but, in effect, barring no other influences a umask will have files created with rwxr-xr-x (755) permissions. There ARE other influences, which a man umask will reveal.

The . /etc/environment is sourcing the specified file, which (from the name) sounds like it will be setting up the users environment. Being sourced (the . is the command) means that anything set in that file will be retained (think of it like an include file) within the environment of the running process (the user shell) unlike if it had been executed, in which case any variables woudl only exist within the sub-shell process created.

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