--- a/test/test_status.py	Tue Apr 10 12:20:47 2007 +0200
+++ b/test/test_status.py	Tue Apr 10 18:17:53 2007 +0200
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 """Tests for the Status classes"""
 
 import os
+import stat
 import unittest
 from datetime import datetime
 
@@ -35,6 +36,13 @@
         otherstatus = RevisionStatus(self.filename)
         self.assertEquals(otherstatus.status.name, "error")
 
+    def test_status_file_permissions(self):
+        status = RevisionStatus(self.filename)
+        status.error()
+
+        mode = os.stat(self.filename).st_mode
+        self.assertEquals(stat.S_IMODE(mode) & 0444, 0444)
+
     def test_getting_unknown_fields(self):
         status = RevisionStatus(self.filename)
         self.assertRaises(AttributeError, getattr, status, "unknown_field")

--- a/treepkg/status.py	Tue Apr 10 12:20:47 2007 +0200
+++ b/treepkg/status.py	Tue Apr 10 18:17:53 2007 +0200
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@
             if field in self._values:
                 lines.append("%s: %s\n"
                              % (field, desc.serialize(self._values[field])))
-        util.writefile(self._filename, "".join(lines))
+        util.writefile(self._filename, "".join(lines), 0644)
 
     def __getattr__(self, attr):
         desc = self._fields.get(attr)

--- a/treepkg/util.py	Tue Apr 10 12:20:47 2007 +0200
+++ b/treepkg/util.py	Tue Apr 10 18:17:53 2007 +0200
@@ -83,12 +83,18 @@
 
 
 
-def writefile(filename, contents):
+def writefile(filename, contents, permissions=None):
     """Write contents to filename in an atomic way.
 
     The contents are first written to a temporary file in the same
     directory as filename.  Once the contents are written, the temporary
     file is closed and renamed to filename.
+
+    The optional parameter permissions, if given, are the permissions
+    for the new file.  By default, or if the parameter is None, the
+    default permissions set by the tempfile.mkstemp are used which means
+    that the file is only readable for the user that created the file.
+    The permissions value is used as the second parameter to os.chmod.
     """
     dirname, basename = os.path.split(filename)
     fileno, tempname = tempfile.mkstemp("", basename, dirname)
@@ -97,6 +103,8 @@
         if not contents.endswith("\n"):
             os.write(fileno, "\n")
         os.close(fileno)
+        if permissions is not None:
+            os.chmod(tempname, permissions)
         os.rename(tempname, filename)
     finally:
         if os.path.exists(tempname):