Set UMASK value only for non root users

Question

I want to set the UMASK value for non root users as 077 and for the root users it should be 022.

I have changed the UMASK value in /etc/login.defs from 022 to 077. But this seems to change the UMASK of my root user as well. Is there a way in which I can only change the UMASK value of new non-root users that are created?

Note: I need to be able to do this in a script.

Answer 1

You could just put umask 022 in your root's .profile/.bashrc and have 077 as a default in your /etc/login.defs.

The umask shell builtin makes the umask system call which sets process-inheritable the umask property: a umask call set in one process affects all descendants of that process (unless they themselves make a umask call), so to set a umask for "user", you need to call umask in a process from which all user processes descend (the login shell and/or the shell through which sudo commands are invoked).