scp - leaves vestigial ssh process

[John_Hancock]

Running OpenSSH V 2.1.1p4 on HP-UX 10.20.

Whenever we do an scp it leaves a ssh process in the background. The process looks like

/usr/bin/ssh -x -oFallBackToRsh no hostname scp -t /tmp

Obviously not all of the command line is preserved.

Any ideas as to why this is happening and what we can do to prevent it?
John

[James R. Ferguson]

John:

Unfortunately, only a subset of the whole command string is saved by 'ps'. An old document (#1653012245) notes that "the pstat kernel code data structures were modified in 8.0 and the command string length was reduced to 60 characters. There is no standard for this length...[and] this length
should not be relied on in future releases."

This is consistent with the man pages for ps which also note: "Users of ps must not rely on the exact field widths and spacing of its output, as these will vary depending on the system, the release of HP-UX, and the data to be displayed."

...JRF...

[John_Hancock]

Sorry. I obvoiusly did not make myself clear. The question was not why to we only get a partial command line but why do we get the vestigial process.

John