The umask is used by open(2), mkdir(2), and other system calls that create files to modify the permissions placed on newly created files or directories. Specifically, permissions in the umask are turned off from the mode argument to open(2) and mkdir(2).
The constants that should be used to specify mask are described under stat(2).
The typical default value for the process umask is S_IWGRP | S_IWOTH (octal 022). In the usual case where the mode argument to open(2) is specified as:
S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IWGRP | S_IROTH | S_IWOTH
(octal 0666) when creating a new file, the permissions on the
resulting file will be:
S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH
(because 0666 & ~022 = 0644; i.e., rw-r--r--).
The umask setting also affects the permissions assigned to POSIX IPC objects (mq_open(3), sem_open(3), shm_open(3)), FIFOs (mkfifo(3)), and Unix domain sockets (unix(7)) created by the process. The umask does not affect the permissions assigned to System V IPC objects created by the process (using msgget(2), semget(2), shmget(2)).