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Some tools adjust their output based on it going to a terminal or not. Try 'ls' versus 'ls | cat'.

Indeed. I often use ps | cat to get the full command line for processes (that's otherwise truncated). All hail Java command lines.

Try 'ps auxw' - the w enables wide output.

And for really wide commands (like java) you can add another w to get the whole thing: ps auxww