In case you weren't aware, programs can make use of a facility on Linux
to make their ps listings contain appropriate command-line arguments and
environment strings. There's also a similar kernel API on FreeBSD. This
is used by the built-ins in nosh to good effect, even more so in the
forthcoming version 1.38, allowing system adminstrators to debug things
more easily from ps listings by showing them the actually effective
states of the chained argument and environment vectors rather than what
they were at the beginning of a chain of built-in commands.
The subject of deprecating and removing the API that permits this came
up recently on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. I raised my concerns, and
the Linux Kernel developers have been laudably responsive on the
subject. As I said to them, I would welcome a better API, that allows
setting these things atomically, start and length together as a pair.