Index: common.scm
==================================================================
--- common.scm
+++ common.scm
@@ -1673,36 +1673,40 @@
 
 ;; get values from cached info from dropping file in logs dir
 ;;  e.g. key is host and dtype is normalized-load
 ;;
 (define (common:get-cached-info key dtype #!key (age 5))
-  (let* ((fullpath (conc *toppath* "/.sysdata/" key "-" dtype ".log")))
-    (if (and (file-exists? fullpath)
-	     (file-read-access? fullpath))
-	(handle-exceptions
-	 exn
-	 #f
-	 (debug:print 2 *default-log-port* "reading file " fullpath)
-	 (let ((real-age (- (current-seconds)(file-change-time fullpath)))) 
-	   (if (< real-age age)
-	       (with-input-from-file fullpath read)
-	       (begin
-		 (debug:print 1 *default-log-port* "file " fullpath " is too old (" real-age" seconds) to trust, skipping reading it")
-		 #f))))
-	(begin
-	  (debug:print 2 *default-log-port* "not reading file " fullpath)
-	  #f))))
- 
-(define (common:write-cached-info key dtype dat)
-  (let* ((fulldir  (conc *toppath* "/.sysdata"))
-	 (fullpath (conc fulldir "/" key "-" dtype ".log")))
-    (if (not (file-exists? fulldir))(create-directory fulldir #t))
-    (handle-exceptions
-     exn
-     #f
-     (with-output-to-file fullpath (lambda ()(pp dat))))))
-
+  (if *toppath*
+      (let* ((fullpath (conc *toppath* "/.sysdata/" key "-" dtype ".log")))
+	(if (and (file-exists? fullpath)
+		 (file-read-access? fullpath))
+	    (handle-exceptions
+	     exn
+	     #f
+	     (debug:print 2 *default-log-port* "reading file " fullpath)
+	     (let ((real-age (- (current-seconds)(file-change-time fullpath)))) 
+	       (if (< real-age age)
+		   (with-input-from-file fullpath read)
+		   (begin
+		     (debug:print 1 *default-log-port* "file " fullpath " is too old (" real-age" seconds) to trust, skipping reading it")
+		     #f))))
+	    (begin
+	      (debug:print 2 *default-log-port* "not reading file " fullpath)
+	      #f)))
+      #f))
+ 
+(define (common:write-cached-info key dtype dat)
+  (if *toppath*
+      (let* ((fulldir  (conc *toppath* "/.sysdata"))
+	     (fullpath (conc fulldir "/" key "-" dtype ".log")))
+	(if (not (file-exists? fulldir))(create-directory fulldir #t))
+	(handle-exceptions
+	 exn
+	 #f
+	 (with-output-to-file fullpath (lambda ()(pp dat)))))
+      #f))
+  
 ;; get cpu load by reading from /proc/loadavg, return all three values
 ;;
 (define (common:get-cpu-load remote-host)
   (handle-exceptions
    exn