Running JVM in Linux with execl

Question

Why if I run JVM under Linux and with execl the first argument is lost?
For example if I want to run java -version I have to do:
execl("/usr/lib/java5/bin/java","nothing","-version");
If I do execl("/usr/lib/java5/bin/java","-version"); it doesn't works and appears the help message that appears when you are wrong with the parameters.
This is an innocent thing when you know it, but that has caused me a lot of headaches and debug time and now I'm curios about it ;)
PD: I use jdk-1_5_0_01 and Suse 9.1
A lot of thanks in advance,

Answer 1

/* a.c */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main() {
int r=execl("./b","nothing","-version",NULL);
printf("%d\n",r);
/* b.c */
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc,char *argv[]) {
int i;
        for(i=0;i<argc;i++) printf("%d %s\n",i,argv);
$ gcc a.c -o a
$ gcc b.c- o b
$ ./a
0 nothing
1 -version