UMASK - Setting the users mask when they create a file. In general when we create a file: the umask is subtracted from 666, so a umask of 022 will set a file to have the 644 permissions. When we create a directory the umask is subtracted from 777 so a umask of 022 will set a directory to have a 755. The realith of this is that the calculations are done in octal so a umask of 033 does not give us a result that we expect by this method.