How to change argv0 in bash so command shows up with different name in ps?

You can do it when running a new program via exec -a <newname>.

Just for the record, even though it does not exactly answer the original poster's question, this is something trivial to do with zsh:

ARGV0=emacs nethack

bash argv ps

I've had a chance to go through the source for bash and it does not look like there is any support for writing to argv[0].

CodeHunter