NFS Default Permissions

Question

I was looking into a problem we're having using an NFS shared volume for several users.
I want to find a way to change the default permissions when we leave files on this mounted volume so that files we leave (or create) on the volume default to having group r/w permission. As it is, the default is for the group to be read-only.
I found a separate archived thread on this:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1625782
There it was suggested that changing the global umask setting would change all default behaviors to read & write for group:
defaults write -g NSUmask 2
This does seem to change the new file defaults for all files written on one's hard drive, but that didn't seem to fix everything.
- If the file is already group "read-only" then it stays that way when copied to the NFS volume
- If the file is already group "read & write" then it stays that way when copied [good]
- If you create a new folder
- If you create a new folder either locally or on the remote volume USING THE FINDER GUI, then it's read-only.
- If you create a new folder either locally or on the remote volume USING THE COMMAND LINE, then it's "read & write" [good]
So the question I have, should anyone have any deep insights into permissions are:
1) Can you change the default folder permissions created through the Finder GUI?
2) Is there any way to make copied files default to new permissions, or will they always retain their base permissions.
It's obviously much easier for several people using the same folder to have compatible permissions use than to have to remember to manually change them every time a file/folder is copied/created!

Answer 1

"1) Can you change the default folder permissions created through the Finder GUI?"
Hmm, the answer should be "yes", but it also shouldn't be necessary - the "Finder" by default would be expected to use the 'NSUmask' value set in the NSGlobal domain so it is odd that in your case, "If you create a new folder either locally or on the remote volume USING THE FINDER GUI, then it's read-only." But anyway, to independently set the 'umask' for "Finder", try:<pre>defaults write com.apple.finder umask 2</pre>This setting (and it is 'umask', not 'NSUmask' in this case) takes effect after the "Finder" is restarted and does not require a logout.
"2) Is there any way to make copied files default to new permissions, or will they always retain their base permissions."
This one, I don't know. I could have swore that in early versions of "Panther" that copied items were considered "new" and the global umask value applied, but the behaviour had changed by later versions to preserve permissions, and it looks like 10.4 behaves the same way.
I don't know anything about NFS - does it have any sort of "inherit permissions" setting like AFP? AFP shares can be configured so that copied items will inherit the permissions (and or ownership) of the parent folder... actually it seems to follow some strange rules so that in practice, both options often need to be set, but that's beside the point. It might be worth looking into to see if something like that is available...