BEWARE, a couple of the examples in the comments suggest doing something like this:
chmod(file_or_dir_name, intval($mode, 8));
However, if $mode is an integer then intval( ) won't modify it. So, this code...
$mode = 644;
chmod('/tmp/test', intval($mode, 8));
...produces permissions that look like this:
1--w----r-T
Instead, use octdec( ), like this:
chmod(file_or_dir_name, octdec($mode));
See also: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.octdec.php