diff --git a/sys/man/2/exec b/sys/man/2/exec
index 9c9d4134b..dc7551d02 100644
--- a/sys/man/2/exec
+++ b/sys/man/2/exec
@@ -67,6 +67,11 @@ and any initial arguments to that program, for example
 ls | mc
 .EE
 .PP
+There may be up to 256 bytes of arguments passed to the interpreter.
+These are tokenized into up to 32 arguments by
+.IR tokenize (2)
+before being passed as the interpreters argument vector.
+.PP
 When a C program is executed,
 it is called as follows:
 .IP
diff --git a/sys/man/8/auth b/sys/man/8/auth
index 9c80885b9..f0c4cd2ac 100644
--- a/sys/man/8/auth
+++ b/sys/man/8/auth
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ changeuser, convkeys, printnetkey, status, enable, disable, authsrv, guard.srv,
 .PP
 .B auth/box
 [
-.B -d
+.B -s
 ] [
 .B -rc
 .I file
@@ -298,9 +298,8 @@ the child namespace; the
 flag specifies a string of driver
 characters to keep. The
 .B -s
-flag gives a base set of namespace
-components, ones expected by rc, then passes
-the first argument as a script file to rc.
+flag initializes the namespace to what rc expects,
+and passes its arguments unmodified to /bin/rc.
 .PP
 .I As
 executes
diff --git a/sys/src/9/port/sysproc.c b/sys/src/9/port/sysproc.c
index bb25b2b4b..cd1e641cb 100644
--- a/sys/src/9/port/sysproc.c
+++ b/sys/src/9/port/sysproc.c
@@ -243,35 +243,19 @@ sysrfork(va_list list)
 }
 
 static int
-shargs(char *s, int n, char **ap)
+shargs(char *s, int n, char **ap, int nap)
 {
+	char *p;
 	int i;
 
 	if(n <= 2 || s[0] != '#' || s[1] != '!')
 		return -1;
 	s += 2;
 	n -= 2;		/* skip #! */
-	for(i=0;; i++){
-		if(i >= n)
-			return 0;
-		if(s[i]=='\n')
-			break;
-	}
-	s[i] = 0;
-
-	i = 0;
-	for(;;) {
-		while(*s==' ' || *s=='\t')
-			s++;
-		if(*s == 0)
-			break;
-		ap[i++] = s++;
-		while(*s && *s!=' ' && *s!='\t')
-			s++;
-		if(*s == 0)
-			break;
-		*s++ = 0;
-	}
+	if((p = memchr(s, '\n', n)) == nil)
+		return 0;
+	*p = 0;
+	i = tokenize(s, ap, nap-1);
 	ap[i] = nil;
 	return i;
 }
@@ -300,12 +284,15 @@ beswav(uvlong v)
 uintptr
 sysexec(va_list list)
 {
-	struct {
-		Exec;
-		uvlong	hdr[1];
-	} ehdr;
-	char line[sizeof(ehdr)];
-	char *progarg[sizeof(line)/2+1];
+	union {
+		struct {
+			Exec;
+			uvlong	hdr[1];
+		} ehdr;
+		char buf[256];
+	} u;
+	char line[256];
+	char *progarg[32+1];
 	volatile char *args, *elem, *file0;
 	char **argv, **argp, **argp0;
 	char *a, *e, *charp, *file;
@@ -353,22 +340,22 @@ sysexec(va_list list)
 		if(!indir)
 			kstrdup(&elem, up->genbuf);
 
-		n = devtab[tc->type]->read(tc, &ehdr, sizeof(ehdr), 0);
+		n = devtab[tc->type]->read(tc, u.buf, sizeof(u.buf), 0);
 		if(n >= sizeof(Exec)) {
-			magic = beswal(ehdr.magic);
+			magic = beswal(u.ehdr.magic);
 			if(magic == AOUT_MAGIC) {
 				if(magic & HDR_MAGIC) {
-					if(n < sizeof(ehdr))
+					if(n < sizeof(u.ehdr))
 						error(Ebadexec);
-					entry = beswav(ehdr.hdr[0]);
-					text = UTZERO+sizeof(ehdr);
+					entry = beswav(u.ehdr.hdr[0]);
+					text = UTZERO+sizeof(u.ehdr);
 				} else {
-					entry = beswal(ehdr.entry);
+					entry = beswal(u.ehdr.entry);
 					text = UTZERO+sizeof(Exec);
 				}
 				if(entry < text)
 					error(Ebadexec);
-				text += beswal(ehdr.text);
+				text += beswal(u.ehdr.text);
 				if(text <= entry || text >= (USTKTOP-USTKSIZE))
 					error(Ebadexec);
 
@@ -393,8 +380,8 @@ sysexec(va_list list)
 		/*
 		 * Process #! /bin/sh args ...
 		 */
-		memmove(line, &ehdr, n);
-		n = shargs(line, n, progarg);
+		memmove(line, u.buf, n);
+		n = shargs(line, n, progarg, nelem(progarg));
 		if(n < 1)
 			error(Ebadexec);
 		/*
@@ -411,8 +398,8 @@ sysexec(va_list list)
 
 	t = (text+align) & ~align;
 	text -= UTZERO;
-	data = beswal(ehdr.data);
-	bss = beswal(ehdr.bss);
+	data = beswal(u.ehdr.data);
+	bss = beswal(u.ehdr.bss);
 	align = BY2PG-1;
 	d = (t + data + align) & ~align;
 	bssend = t + data + bss;
diff --git a/sys/src/cmd/auth/box.c b/sys/src/cmd/auth/box.c
index 60d842b90..0709f2e18 100644
--- a/sys/src/cmd/auth/box.c
+++ b/sys/src/cmd/auth/box.c
@@ -2,7 +2,11 @@
 #include <libc.h>
 #include <auth.h>
 
-static int debug;
+static int	debug;
+static char	cwd[8192];
+static char	*parts[256];
+static int	mflags[nelem(parts)];
+static int	nparts;
 
 static void
 binderr(char *new, char *old, int flag)
@@ -32,20 +36,14 @@ binderr(char *new, char *old, int flag)
 		fprint(2, "bind %s %s %s\n", dash, new, old);
 	}
 	if(bind(new, old, flag) < 0)
-		sysfatal("bind: %r");
+		sysfatal("bind %s: %r", new);
 }
 
 static void
 resolvenames(char **names, int nname)
 {
 	int i;
-	char buf[8192];
-	int fd;
 
-	fd = open(".", OREAD|OCEXEC);
-	if(fd < 0)
-		sysfatal("could not open .: %r");
-	fd2path(fd, buf, sizeof buf);
 	for(i = 0; i < nname; i++){
 		if(names[i] == nil)
 			continue;
@@ -55,10 +53,9 @@ resolvenames(char **names, int nname)
 		case '/':
 			break;
 		default:
-			names[i] = cleanname(smprint("%s/%s", buf, names[i]));
-		}	
+			names[i] = cleanname(smprint("%s/%s", cwd, names[i]));
+		}
 	}
-	close(fd);
 }
 
 static void
@@ -103,7 +100,8 @@ sandbox(char **names, int *flags, int nname)
 			free(d);
 			binderr(skel, dir, MBEFORE);
 		}
-		binderr(names[j], targ, flags[j]);
+		if(flags[j] != -1)
+			binderr(names[j], targ, flags[j]);
 	}
 	binderr(newroot, "/", MREPL);
 }
@@ -133,16 +131,11 @@ skelfs(void)
 		sysfatal("/mnt/d mount setup: %r");
 }
 
-static char *parts[256];
-static int  mflags[nelem(parts)];
-static int  nparts;
-static char *rc[] = { "/bin/rc", nil , nil};
-
 static void
 push(char *path, int flag)
 {
 	if(nparts == nelem(parts))
-		sysfatal("component overflow");
+		sysfatal("too many bound paths");
 	parts[nparts] = path;
 	mflags[nparts++] = flag;
 }
@@ -150,23 +143,23 @@ push(char *path, int flag)
 void
 usage(void)
 {
-	fprint(2, "usage %s: [ -d ] [ -r file ] [ -c dir ] [ -e devs ] [ -. path ] cmd args...\n", argv0);
+	fprint(2, "usage %s: [ -r file ] [ -c dir ] [ -e devs ] cmd args...\n", argv0);
 	exits("usage");
 }
 
 void
 main(int argc, char **argv)
 {
-	char devs[1024];
-	int dfd;
-	char *path;
+	char **argp, devs[128];
+	int i, narg, dfd;
 	char *a;
 	int sflag;
 
 	nparts = 0;
-	path = "/";
+	narg = 0;
 	memset(devs, 0, sizeof devs);
 	sflag = 0;
+	argp = argv;
 	ARGBEGIN{
 	case 'D':
 		debug++;
@@ -184,9 +177,6 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 	case 'e':
 		snprint(devs, sizeof devs, "%s%s", devs, EARGF(usage()));
 		break;
-	case '.':
-		path = EARGF(usage());
-		break;
 	case 's':
 		sflag = 1;
 		break;
@@ -195,18 +185,19 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 		break;
 	}ARGEND
 
-	if(argc == 0)
+	if(argc == 0 && !sflag)
 		usage();
 
+	if(getwd(cwd, sizeof(cwd)) == nil)
+		sysfatal("getwd: %r");
+	push(cwd, -1);
 	if(sflag){
 		snprint(devs, sizeof devs, "%s%s", devs, "|d");
 		push("/srv", MREPL|MCREATE);
 		push("/env", MREPL|MCREATE);
 		push("/rc", MREPL);
 		push("/bin", MREPL);
-		push(argv[0], MREPL);
-		rc[1] = argv[0];
-		argv = rc;
+		argp[narg++] = "/bin/rc";
 	} else {
 		if(access(argv[0], AEXIST) == -1){
 			if((argv[0] = smprint("/bin/%s", argv[0])) == nil)
@@ -216,6 +207,9 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 		}
 		push(argv[0], MREPL);
 	}
+	for(i = 0; i < argc; i++)
+		argp[narg++] = argv[i];
+	argp[narg] = nil;
 
 	rfork(RFNAMEG|RFFDG);
 	skelfs();
@@ -225,7 +219,7 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 
 	resolvenames(parts, nparts);
 	sandbox(parts, mflags, nparts);
-	
+
 	if(debug)
 		fprint(2, "chdev %s\n", devs);
 
@@ -238,8 +232,8 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 	}
 	close(dfd);
 
-	if(chdir(path) < 0)
-		sysfatal("can not cd to %s", path);
-	exec(argv[0], argv);
+	if(chdir(cwd) < 0)
+		sysfatal("chdir %s: %r", cwd);
+	exec(argp[0], argp);
 	sysfatal("exec: %r");
 }