diff -up procps-3.2.7/proc/escape.c.p8 procps-3.2.7/proc/escape.c
--- procps-3.2.7/proc/escape.c.p8	2005-01-05 21:50:26.000000000 +0100
+++ procps-3.2.7/proc/escape.c	2008-09-01 11:31:15.000000000 +0200
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ static int escape_str_utf8(char *restric
         // multibyte - printable
         // Got space?
         if (my_cells+wlen > *maxcells || my_bytes+1+len >= bufsize) break;
+#ifdef OUTPUT_PARANOID
         // 0x9b is control byte for some terminals
         if (memchr(src, 0x9B, len)) {
 	  // unsafe multibyte
@@ -87,13 +88,16 @@ static int escape_str_utf8(char *restric
 	  my_cells++;
 	  my_bytes++;
         } else {
+#endif
 	  // safe multibyte
        	  memcpy(dst, src, len);
 	  my_cells += wlen;
 	  dst += len;
 	  my_bytes += len;
           src += len;
+#ifdef OUTPUT_PARANOID
         }
+#endif
       }
     }
     //fprintf(stdout, "cells: %d\n", my_cells);