On Sunday 15 December 2002 08:46 pm, Michael Havens wrote:
> I am perplexed.
> I know that Hans was good and discussed this at a newbies meeting but I
> didn't quite understand it.
> 777 = rwx rwx rwx
>
> What exactly is 'execute'? I mean isn't executing it just like reading
> it? Or does reading it imply changing it, but if that is the case what is
> the 'writing' option? Or else is 'x' not execute but change? But again,
> that is the same as 'write'. Or is write like 'add data' whle change is
> 'change the program'?
>
> Now we move on to 'umask'. The best that I can figure is that everyone is
> assigned.... No . That doesn't work
>
> What in the world is 'umask'?

A few other answers gave good quick overviews.  If you want more details, 
try this page:

http://www.linuxpowered.com/html/editorials/file.html

It's one of the better "how do permissions work" pages that I've seen.
-- 
Kurt Granroth - "KDE -- Conquer Your Desktop"
KDE Developer/Evangelist | granroth@kde.org
http://www.granroth.org  | kurt@granroth.org