Batch mode SSH gives error "TERM environment variable not set"

Question

I made sure that TERM was defined in the .bashrc.

However, when running ssh in batch mode I get:

 $ ssh pc-lab7 "echo $TERM; echo $0"
    TERM environment variable not set.
    linux
    -bash

If I run ssh in interactive mode, I do not see this error.

How can I eliminate this error message?

Answer 1

Use of -t option to ssh allocates tty

 -t      Force pseudo-tty allocation.  This can be used to execute arbitrary
         screen-based programs on a remote machine, which can be very useful,
         e.g. when implementing menu services.  Multiple -t options force tty
         allocation, even if ssh has no local tty.

Answer 2

I finally found the reason for this annoying "TERM environment variable not set" warning.

It turned out that when the ssh is executing in batch mode without an interactive user, a call to 'clear' command in a startup script will yield this error.

Commenting out the 'clear' line in the script fixed the issue for me.