SQR with 077 umask creates file with 611 permissions

I ran across this strange situation. An SQR opened a new data file for output and created the file with 611 permissions. We needed group read access so this caused a problem. I knew that our login script for the PeopleSoft Unix user set umask to 022 but that without running the login scripts the mask is 077. So, my first thought was that we had started the process scheduler without running the login scripts and the mask was 077. But, why would the file that the SQR created be 611 permissions and not 600? The 077 mask should get rid of all the group and others bits. I built a simple test case to show that the SQR creates the file with 611 permissions with a 077 mask.

Here is the test SQR:

begin-report
  Let $Unix_Cmd = 'umask'
  Call System Using $Unix_Cmd #Status
  Let $Unix_Cmd = 'rm /tmp/bobby/bobby.txt'
  Call System Using $Unix_Cmd #Status
  let $testfile = '/tmp/bobby/bobby.txt'
  open $testfile as 1 for-writing  record=1500:fixed
  close 1
  Let $Unix_Cmd = 'ls -l /tmp/bobby/bobby.txt'
  Call System Using $Unix_Cmd #Status
end-report

Here is its output:

SQR for PeopleSoft V8.53.05
077
-rw---x--x   1 psoft      psoft            0 Jun 23 10:54 /tmp/bobby/bobby.txt

Notice the execute bits for group and others.  Why were they not masked out? Also, the default permissions to create a file is 644. So, creating a new file should not set the execute bits at all no matter what mask you are using.

I created a Korn shell script to do the same thing as the SQR:

umask
rm /tmp/bobby/bobby.txt
touch /tmp/bobby/bobby.txt
ls -l /tmp/bobby/bobby.txt

Here is its output:

077
-rw-------   1 psoft      psoft            0 Jun 23 10:58 /tmp/bobby/bobby.txt

Notice that there are no group and others bits which is what I expected with a 077 mask. I tried searching the Internet for SQR and 611 permissions but could not find anything.

As it turns out, we did start the process scheduler with umask 077 so I just modified the script that started it to set umask 022 and that resolved the problem. Here is the output from my test SQR with umask 022:

SQR for PeopleSoft V8.53.05
022
-rw-r--r--   1 psoft      psoft            0 Jun 23 11:01 /tmp/bobby/bobby.txt

This is what we wanted and of course the Korn shell script does the same thing as it should.

022
-rw-r--r--   1 psoft      psoft            0 Jun 23 11:02 /tmp/bobby/bobby.txt

Seems very odd to me. Anyway, I hope that this post helps someone.

This was on HP-UX 11.31 and PeopleTools 8.53.05

Bobby