| Subject: | UMask parameters |
UMask parameters should do the
my $p=options{mask}; $p = oct($p) if( $p =~ /^0/); store $p; dance to
ensure that they are interpreted as octal when correctly specified
(with a leading zero).
This is especially important when the umask comes from a config file as
text, but is programmer-friendly in any case. (It is, of course,
harmless if a binary scalar is passed.)
Currently, if the UMask parameter is inadvertenly passed as text, it's
interpreted as decimal, with results that surprise the uninitiated (and
annoy everyone.)
If every routine (in all packages) did this, much surprise and
annoyance could be avoided....