Why does Unix apply the same umask differently to file and directory?

1. (Red Hat Linux)
2. Because to enter a directory, you need execute permission - but to read a file, you just need read permission.

   The standard umask (022) gives rw-r–r– for files and rwxr-xr-x for directories.

   Check the man page for chmod and umask (section 2 on my system) for more details.

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