So: is my conclusion correct that usernames above a certain length (longer than 8 chars?) are shown only with the userid number in the 'ps' list? I find this rather surprising.... Rob.
Just tested that on my system and your conclusion appears to be correct. I created 3 new users: longusername, abcdefgh, abcdefghi. I then did a su to each and checked the output of the ps command and only abcdefgh (8 characters) showed up as username. The other two only displayed their user ID. Good to know if one is grepping the output of the ps command for a particular user (either in a script or at the command line). Thanks, Jacques B