Tomcat and other Java processes run from the command line often have large, esoteric command line configuration footprints, with arguments and definitions falling out all over the place.
The -uwwp idiom to ps instructs ps to print the entire command line, and not just the first bit.
awp9@tp-~-->
awp9@tp-~-->ps 2634
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
2634 ? S 11:48 /usr/local/jdk/jdk1.5.0_02/bin/java -Xms512m -Xmx512m
awp9@tp-~-->
awp9@tp-~-->
awp9@tp-~-->ps -uwwp 2634
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
portal 2634 1.0 21.8 783644 449992 ? S Aug29 11:48 /usr/local/jdk/jdk1.5.0_02/bin/java -Xms512m -Xmx512m -server -Djava.endorsed.dirs=/usr/local/jakarta-tomcat-5.0.28-2/common/endorsed -classpath /usr/local/jdk/jdk1.5.0_02/lib/tools.jar:
/usr/local/jakarta-tomcat-5.0.28-2/bin/bootstrap.jar:
/usr/local/jakarta-tomcat-5.0.28-2/bin/commons-logging-api.jar -Dcatalina.base=/usr/local/tomcat5_instances/portaldev -Dcatalina.home=/usr/local/jakarta-tomcat-5.0.28-2 -Djava.io.tmpdir=/usr/local/tomcat5_instances/portaldev/temp org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap start
awp9@tp-~-->