umask

Set the default file permissions

umask numbers correspond to the 3 digit binary number that controls, rwx permissions. Everywhere there’s a 1 it un-sets the file permission. Example: umask 0022

Default is 666 for files and 777 for directories.

Original file mode — rw- rw- rw-
Mask 000 000 010 010
Result — rw- r– r–

Default umask is 0022.

[akraker@server1 ~]$ umask
0022

Therefore all directories created with the default umask are 755 and files are 644.