diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 842d2d06c..e410948a1 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -118,6 +118,9 @@ Other changes:
 * <style> has a new attribute reuseloadedstylesheet to work around a
   bug in widespread Xalan versions.
 
+* <tarfileset> has a new dirmode attribute to specify the permissions
+  for directories.
+
 Changes from Ant 1.5.1Beta1 to 1.5.1
 ====================================
 
diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/tar.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/tar.html
index 7a7ce706d..a9d6b2712 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/tar.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/tar.html
@@ -121,8 +121,16 @@ attributes
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">mode</td>
-    <td valign="top">A 3 digit octal string, specify the user, group and other modes in
-                     the standard Unix fashion</td>
+    <td valign="top">A 3 digit octal string, specify the user, group
+    and other modes in the standard Unix fashion.  Only applies to
+    plain files.  Default is 644.</td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">dirmode</td>
+    <td valign="top">A 3 digit octal string, specify the user, group
+    and other modes in the standard Unix fashion.  Only applies to
+    directories.  Default is 755. <em>since Ant 1.6</em>.</td>
     <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Tar.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Tar.java
index cc6f462c0..214a01ced 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Tar.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Tar.java
@@ -74,8 +74,7 @@ import org.apache.tools.bzip2.CBZip2OutputStream;
 import org.apache.tools.tar.TarConstants;
 import org.apache.tools.tar.TarEntry;
 import org.apache.tools.tar.TarOutputStream;
-
-
+import org.apache.tools.zip.UnixStat;
 
 /**
  * Creates a tar archive.
@@ -403,6 +402,8 @@ public class Tar extends MatchingTask {
             if (!file.isDirectory()) {
                 te.setSize(file.length());
                 te.setMode(tarFileSet.getMode());
+            } else {
+                te.setMode(tarFileSet.getDirMode());
             }
             te.setUserName(tarFileSet.getUserName());
             te.setGroupName(tarFileSet.getGroup());
@@ -441,7 +442,8 @@ public class Tar extends MatchingTask {
     public static class TarFileSet extends FileSet {
         private String[] files = null;
 
-        private int mode = 0100644;
+        private int fileMode = UnixStat.FILE_FLAG | UnixStat.DEFAULT_FILE_PERM;
+        private int dirMode = UnixStat.DIR_FLAG | UnixStat.DEFAULT_DIR_PERM;
 
         private String userName = "";
         private String groupName = "";
@@ -482,11 +484,31 @@ public class Tar extends MatchingTask {
          * optional, default=0644
          */
         public void setMode(String octalString) {
-            this.mode = 0100000 | Integer.parseInt(octalString, 8);
+            this.fileMode = 
+                UnixStat.FILE_FLAG | Integer.parseInt(octalString, 8);
         }
 
         public int getMode() {
-            return mode;
+            return fileMode;
+        }
+
+        /**
+         * A 3 digit octal string, specify the user, group and 
+         * other modes in the standard Unix fashion; 
+         * optional, default=0755
+         *
+         * @since Ant 1.6
+         */
+        public void setDirMode(String octalString) {
+            this.dirMode = 
+                UnixStat.DIR_FLAG | Integer.parseInt(octalString, 8);
+        }
+
+        /**
+         * @since Ant 1.6
+         */
+        public int getDirMode() {
+            return dirMode;
         }
 
         /**