How to make top run in background ? It needs to run and log the output. Not die or zombie up

I am trying to make a script to log the top output to a file in the background for my embedded system. But as soon as I put it in background, it either exits or zombies up. What is the systems problem with running things in background ? My script

TOP_LOG_FILE=top_log.txt
if [ -e $TOP_LOG_FILE ] ; then
        rm $TOP_LOG_FILE
fi
while true
do
        echo "##"`date`"##" >> $TOP_LOG_FILE
        nohup top -n 1 >> $TOP_LOG_FILE 
        sleep 1
        echo "##xxxxxxxxxxx##" >> $TOP_LOG_FILE
done

I am trying to execute it as

# nohup sh top_log.sh &


[4] 3051559

appending output to nohup.out

# 


[4] + Stopped (tty output) nohup sh top_log.sh

and as

[5] 3121193

sh: top_log.sh: cannot execute - No such file or directory

[6] 3121194

# 


[6]   Done                 > /dev/null 

[5]   Done (126)           top_log.sh 

#

How do I actually get around this behavior?

Answer

top -n 1 -b

Tail that in a loop and append to file.
Wrap your loop in a script and launch it from terminal with &.

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Answer