By default the ps command displays a mixture of numeric and names for user IDs. Its cutoff limit for textual user IDs is 8 characters. To change this, use your own format string, e.g.: ps -eHo user:14,pid,ppid,lstart,time,args will display like this: USER PID PPID STARTED TIME COMMAND root 2 0 Sun Aug 9 10:53:00 2015 00:00:00 [kthreadd] root 3 2 Sun Aug 9 10:53:00 2015 00:00:01 [ksoftirqd/0] [...] felix 9597 1 Sun Aug 9 19:18:40 2015 00:00:00 /usr/lib/libreoffice/program/oosplash felix 9614 9597 Sun Aug 9 19:18:40 2015 00:00:02 /usr/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin --splash-pipe=6 felix 10033 1 Sun Aug 9 19:18:56 2015 00:00:00 /usr/bin/knotify4 longnameuser 6038 1 Sun Aug 9 19:59:27 2015 00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/startx -- -nolisten tcp :2 longnameuser 6069 6038 Sun Aug 9 19:59:28 2015 00:00:00 xinit /home/longnameuser/.xinitrc -- /usr/bin/X :2 -nolisten tcp :2 -auth /tmp/serverauth.asdf root 6070 6069 Sun Aug 9 19:59:28 2015 00:00:00 /usr/bin/X :2 -nolisten tcp :2 -auth /tmp/serverauth.asdf