On an x86 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 4 (Nahant Update 2) using "top" from procps-3.2.3-8.2 doing rsh REMOTE_MACHINE top does not work, it prints an error saying TERM environment variable not set. This kind of usage is a very convenient way to check the status of a remote machine. rsh REMOTE_MACHINE top -b -n 1 works, but that is too verbose, top should be able to determine that is not running on an interactive terminal when run from rsh, so it should not ask for TERM to be set, and just do the the equivalent of -b -n 1 On all other OSes that I know of rsh top just works, and system administrators are used to this command.
I don't think this is an urgen problem that should be fixed by errata update. Please, use the official Red Hat Inc. support (http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/) if you still think that this issue should be fixed. The bugzilla is not right way for your RHEL requests. Thanks.