set umask to 0002 for sftp and scp

Question

I want files sent to my server using sftp and scp to be group-writable. How can I do that?

I tried using libpam-umask from http://wiki.debian.org/DebianDesktopHowTo but it didn't work.

EDIT: Is there any way I can troubleshoot pam? Is there a log? Is there any common reason why libpam-umask would not work? Do I have to install something?

Answer 1

I think PAM reads the default umask from /etc/login.defs as of Debian 6.0, but I do not currently have access to a system to check on.

Answer 2

Last time I had umask problem, trying to get all files in a directory to be group readable no matter who created them.

I got a bit stuck at first; I could set the sticky bit on the group, so all files had same group, but could find no way to set permissions consistently and correctly. The use of a cron job to regularly put it right did not seem satisfactory.

But then someone told be a solution. Posix ACLs, you can set in a directory properties(users,groups,permissions) to inherit.

You will probably need to install it, and new backup tools (the default ones don't always know about ACLs)