Re: Something Odd - "top" Delivers Nada When Run By Crontab

On 7/11/26 01:46, Eli the Bearded wrote:
> In comp.os.linux.misc, c186282  <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Run the script from the CL and it works perfectly.
>>
>> Run it via root crontab though and the top redirect
>> file exists, but is EMPTY.
> 
> The environment variables for cron jobs are usually nearly empty.
> Anytime something works from the shell but not from cron, check
> environment variables.
> 
> Here's a tip: your cron scripts should work with _no_ environment
> variables at all. To run them that with, use `env -i`. When I run
> `env -i top` I get _no_ output at all.
> 
> The "-b" option suggested in another post fixes the no output problem.
> 
> Elijah
> ------
> top probably wants $TERM set when not in batch mode

   As just posted ... the "-b" DID fix my weird issue.

   Kinda thought "-n" would just imply "-b" but they
   didn't write the util that way.

   Anyway, NOW I can get a better picture of why
   my unit just kinda suddenly freezes. Store
   about 250kb of logs, OUGHT to be enough to
   see if there are any services/procs/etc
   suddenly using too much CPU/mem.

   DID write a service that reports temperature and
   disk space over TCP ... looks normal until ...
   nothing useful there. Do like client/server
   stuff - that one done with very few lines
   of Python because high performance was
   not needed :-)

   DID have the damned thing auto-rebooting
   six times a day to TRY and get around this
   problem. Even that didn't always work.
   A reboot is NOT quite the same as a cold
   power-cycle restart. My unit is in a kinda
   awkward location so pulling the wall wart
   requires EFFORT and I'm getting too old
   for lots of effort :-)

   DOES give a cool IR-unfiltered wide camera
   view though. LIKE the funky colors, esp the
   ultramarine sky :-)