Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hpfcso!hpldola!paul
From: paul@hpldola.HP.COM (Paul Bame)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: ps lists command parameters
Message-ID: <11870011@hpldola.HP.COM>
Date: 5 Mar 90 17:50:43 GMT
References: <686@mmlai.UUCP>
Organization: HP Elec. Design Div. -ColoSpgs
Lines: 51


'ps' gets program arguments by peeking into your program space.  When
you are swapped out it has to read the swap disc and may not bother so
instead you get square brackets - I think...

If you're just trying to obliterate your command-line arguments so
others can't see them, I've used the following:

	main(argc, argv)
	int argc;
	char *argv[];
	{
		char *saveit;

		if (argc >= 2)
		{
			saveit = argv[1];
			argv[1] = "obliterated";
		}
	}

In fact, once I replaced argv[0] (normally the program name) with a
string which reflected how many blocks it had processed so I could run
it forever in background and conveniently check (with ps) how far
it was in its task.  It's kinda cheezy but was more convenient than
writing a number in a file or to stdout or something.

	main(argc, argv)
	int argc;
	char *argv[];
	{
		char buffer[100] = "Hi!";
		int nblocks;
		...

		argv[0] = buffer;

		for(...)
		{
			...
			sprintf(buffer, "XX %d", nblocks);
			...
		}
	}

I've not done this with HP-UX for a while - and then it was on a 300 only
so there's no guarantee - but it's easy enough to try.

	-Paul

#include <disclaimer.h>