FWIW, I get good results with backticks. For example: 

% perl -MList::Util=max -lwe '
print max map length, `COLUMNS=1000 top -bcS -n 1 2>err.txt`'
208

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The output is 81 if I omit the "COLUMNS=1000" bit.

My system is Debian Linux, and 

% top --version
top (procps version 2.0.7)

[download]

the lowliest monk

In reply to Re: top and STDERR hell... by tlm
in thread top and STDERR hell... by DouglasDD

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