diff --git a/src/uucore/src/lib/features.rs b/src/uucore/src/lib/features.rs
index 42d8ffbe7..546cbea87 100644
--- a/src/uucore/src/lib/features.rs
+++ b/src/uucore/src/lib/features.rs
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pub mod fsext;
 pub mod ringbuffer;
 
 // * (platform-specific) feature-gated modules
-// ** non-windows
+// ** non-windows (i.e. Unix + Fuchsia)
 #[cfg(all(not(windows), feature = "mode"))]
 pub mod mode;
 
diff --git a/src/uucore/src/lib/features/mode.rs b/src/uucore/src/lib/features/mode.rs
index 02e78ba9b..72083e799 100644
--- a/src/uucore/src/lib/features/mode.rs
+++ b/src/uucore/src/lib/features/mode.rs
@@ -143,6 +143,13 @@ pub fn parse_mode(mode: &str) -> Result<mode_t, String> {
 }
 
 pub fn get_umask() -> u32 {
+    // There's no portable way to read the umask without changing it.
+    // We have to replace it and then quickly set it back, hopefully before
+    // some other thread is affected.
+    // On modern Linux kernels the current umask could instead be read
+    // from /proc/self/status. But that's a lot of work.
+    // SAFETY: umask always succeeds and doesn't operate on memory. Races are
+    // possible but it can't violate Rust's guarantees.
     let mask = unsafe { umask(0) };
     unsafe { umask(mask) };
     mask as u32
diff --git a/src/uucore/src/lib/lib.rs b/src/uucore/src/lib/lib.rs
index 79cc2afc3..3d2d867bd 100644
--- a/src/uucore/src/lib/lib.rs
+++ b/src/uucore/src/lib/lib.rs
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ pub use crate::features::fsext;
 pub use crate::features::ringbuffer;
 
 // * (platform-specific) feature-gated modules
-// ** non-windows
+// ** non-windows (i.e. Unix + Fuchsia)
 #[cfg(all(not(windows), feature = "mode"))]
 pub use crate::features::mode;
 // ** unix-only