On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 8:43 AM, Jason Eisner <jason@cs.jhu.edu> wrote:

> The only ways I can see to make it consistent between files and
> directories are to use the "OR" solution for both, or to ignore umask by
> default but have a command-line flag on "sudo make install" that says
> "please respect my umask" (for the few users who want to rely on it to get
> nonstandard installation permissions at their site).
>

Better idea:

Have default 644 for files and 755 for directories, but let the user
override this by explicitly specifying any of
* the desired file permissions
* the desired directory permissions for newly created directories
* the desired group owner for newly created files and directories
via command-line options on "make install".

The 644/755 default is consistent and will work right for almost everyone.
But the command-line flag is useful for users who want to install with
different conventions.  I like this better than a 1-bit flag that says
"please respect my umask."

-jason