diff -up rootsh-1.5.3/src/rootsh.c.BAD rootsh-1.5.3/src/rootsh.c
--- rootsh-1.5.3/src/rootsh.c.BAD	2008-05-14 16:38:30.000000000 -0400
+++ rootsh-1.5.3/src/rootsh.c	2008-05-14 16:38:37.000000000 -0400
@@ -680,7 +680,7 @@ int beginlogging(void) {
     //  Open the logfile 
     */
     if ((logFile = open(logFileName, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_SYNC|O_CREAT|O_APPEND|
-        S_IRUSR|S_IWUSR)) == -1) {
+        S_IRUSR|S_IWUSR, 0777)) == -1) {
       perror(logFileName);
       return(0);
     }