Linux

9.6    Special Bits and the umask Setting

You are now familiar with the principle of access rights, but two finishing touches are still missing: First, there are three more access bits with the strange names of setuid, setgid, and sticky, the meaning of which will be explained ahead. Second, there is still the question of who owns newly created files. Here the so-called umask setting plays a major role.

9.6.1    Setuid, Setgid, and Sticky Bit

The meaning of the three times three access bits, rwxrwxrwx, is easy to understand. In addition, three other pieces of information can be stored with the access information of files and directories: the setuid bit, the setgid bit, and the sticky bit. As a rule, only system administrators need to know these ...