I just stumbled on this, ps(1) gives different info if the user is root or a simple mortal: simple-mortal> ps p8130 PID TT STAT TIME COMMAND 8130 ?? Is 0:05.72 [java] root# ps p8130 PID TT STAT TIME COMMAND 8130 ?? Is 0:05.73 /usr/local/diablo-jdk1.6.0/bin/java ... was this always like this? btw, this is on 7.1-stable danny