Parenthesized arguments in a "ps" list

[Marc Frajola]

   For  those  of  you  who  have   experienced   problems   with
parenthesized  arguments  on  a  "w" list or a "ps" list, I think
that I have a solution.  One day, I started asking about why cer-
tain  people's  arguments  were always parenthesized on our local
vax, and I went to the point of going through  someone's  account
really  trying  to find out why, but I couldn't seem to find any-
thing suspicious.

   About a week later, the  guy  whose  account  I  went  through
called  me, and told me that all he had done was unset his EXINIT
variable, and his arguments in a "ps" list were  no  longer  gar-
baged!  It  appears  that a long EXINIT variable screws something
up, and causes the system to choke when trying  to  locate  argu-
ments  to processes. Why a long environment variable does this, I
don't know, but it is the only thing which has been  a  sure-fire
thing  around here to clear up the problem. It could be something
else, but I believe that it is the length of the variable that is
causing the problem.

   If anyone out there in net.land can find out  more  about  the
problem,  and maybe how to fix UNIX so that this never happens, I
would really appreciate hearing about it.

Marc Frajola, Tektronix, Beaverton, OR
UUCP: ..!tektronix!tekig!tekig1!marc