This document contains the symptoms and reasons why the ps -ef command
displays a UID rather than a login name. This document applies to AIX
Versions 4.x.
There are a few reasons why the ps -ef command displays a UID rather
than the login name.
If the process was run by a user whose name was removed from the
/etc/passwd file (such as during the running process), ps will report
the UID as
the owner of the process.
If the /etc/passwd file or the NIS master (or slave) server could not be
reached at the time ps -ef was issued, the UID will replace the login
name for a particular process.
If the master server modifies the /etc/passwd file, the
client machine will
not immediately show the changes. If you add a user to the system on the
master machine, the local machine will need to re-read the /etc/passwd file
from the server to notice the changes. The client version of the passwd file
contains only a few names and the NIS sequence at the end. Based on the
modification time, the client may not see the changes.