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

Rich <[email protected]>
Newsgroups comp.os.linux.misc
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <[email protected]>
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 7/11/26 02:40, rbowman wrote:
>> On Fri, 10 Jul 2026 23:57:54 -0400, c186282 wrote:
>> 
>>> Wrote a short Python script that uses os.system() to run 'top' ...
>>> redirecting the output to a file. We then clean-up the weird chars in
>>> the file and append it to an ongoing log file.
>> 
>> I think we've been here before...
>> 
>> https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html
>> 
>> Yes, it's one of those hateful, newfangled functions that might work for
>> you.
> 
>   Um ... there are LOTS of 'monitoring' apps for Linux
>   at this point - just did a survey a couple of days
>   ago. Most are serious OVER-kill. They also tend to
>   record SO much shit that you'll never be able to find
>   YOUR particular problem in the mess.
> 
>   Anyway, the "-b" param to 'top' did do the trick.
>   Still not sure why evoking from the CL is so different
>   from evoking via crontab - but that's how it is.

Because without -b, top expects to be connected to a tty.  And when 
running from a crontab, there is no tty.  With no tty, top didn't 
bother doing anything but exiting.

This is basic Unix 101 level stuff.
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