Umask and redhat (updated)

[Waldher, Travis R]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rick Stevens [mailto:rstevens at vitalstream.com] 
> Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 3:43 PM
> To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> Subject: Re: Umask and redhat (updated)
> 
> Waldher, Travis R wrote:
> >  
> > 
> > 
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: Rick Stevens [mailto:rstevens at vitalstream.com]
> >>Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 2:54 PM
> >>To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> >>Subject: Re: Umask and redhat (updated)
> >>
> >>
> >>>What if your shell is chsrc, or something other than bash.  
> >>
> >>Will this
> >>
> >>>be set for them as well?
> >>
> >>For csh users, the lines are virtually identical in /etc/csh.cshrc.
> > 
> > 
> > Ok, so basically there is no true global setting, I need to 
> set it for 
> > each type of shell?
> 
> Yes, unfortunately.  This is due to the way the shells start 
> up.  bash starts up by reading, in order, /etc/profile, 
> /etc/bashrc, and ~/.bashrc among others.  csh starts by 
> reading /etc/csh.cshrc, /etc/csh.login, and ~/.[t]cshrc and a 
> host of others.
> 
> This is all due to the various permutations of Unix out there 
> (Linux being just one more), and not all of which behave the same.
> 
> HISTORY LESSON:  The first Unix shell was called, aptly 
> enough, "sh" and was written by a chap named Bourne.  It's 
> more correctly called the "Bourne Shell".  "bash" is an 
> enhanced version of the Bourne shell, named the "Bourne Again 
> Shell" (cute, eh?).
> 
> If you've ever wondered why all the system admin scripts are 
> written for the Bourne or bash shells, the Unix standards 
> state that the only shell you're guaranteed to have on a 
> system is some variation of Bourne.  You are also guaranteed 
> to have some other programs such as sed, ls, awk, grep, ls, 
> rm, mv, mount and cp.  If you've ever wondered why those are 
> in /bin (on the root filesystem), now you know--you can be 
> sure that the root filesystem is mounted by the boot loader 
> when your admin script is run.
> 
> You aren't guaranteed of anything else at this early stage of 
> your boot process.  csh, ksh, tsh and the rest may or may not 
> be installed or on filesystems that aren't mounted yet.  If 
> your script absolutely MUST work (e.g. to boot the system 
> up), you must write it for Bourne/bash.
> 
> Ok, RECESS TIME!  Who's up for a game of softball? :-)

Ok.. So I tried making the changes, and nothing took effect, until I
added some files to my home directory.  Which tells me that at least ES
3.0 is reading files in the following order:

/etc/profile
/home/travis/.bash_profile
/home/travis/.bashrc
/etc/bashrc

If .bash_profile doesn't exist under my home account, the .bashrc script
won't run, the .bashrc script calls /etc/bashrc.

The question becomes, short putting this entry in the /etc/profile file,
how can I ensure umask is always run, even if there isn't any startup
scripts in the users home directory?

Thanks,
Travis