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From: yuf@sequent.UUCP (Kyle Grieser)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: Changing mode before starting vi
Message-ID: <40977@sequent.UUCP>
Date: 21 Aug 90 01:22:48 GMT
References: <1990Aug20.180936.29942@ecn.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: yuf@crg2.UUCP (Kyle Grieser)
Distribution: na
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems Inc.
Lines: 24

In article <1990Aug20.180936.29942@ecn.purdue.edu> patkar@bromine.ecn.purdue.edu (The Silent Dodo) writes:
>  cp /dev/null $1
>  chmod 700 $1
>  vi $1
>
>  But this looks clumsy.  Is there a better way than this?
>  Probably there is some option you can set in your .exrc, but
>  I could not find any such thing in the online help command.

This really has nothing to do with vi. As you may have noticed, the
"cp /dev/null $1" probably made the file 644 also.  This is what
the file will always be made as.  You need to set your umask
to be something that will mask the permission bits when you
make a file.  Basically, "umask 022" in your .profile (or .login)
will make files of modes 755 and 644 while umask 077 will make
them 700 and 600.  Read the man page for umask for a clearer understanding
of how it works.  It basically uses the umask value as a mask for
the permission bits.

----
Kyle Grieser				...!sequent!yuf
Sequent Computer Systems Inc.		sequent!yuf@uunet.uu.net
15450 S.W. Koll Parkway
Beaverton, OR 97006			(503) 626-5700