Tacking a specific apps cpu resource usage

[Harry Putnam]

I'm pretty sure what I want to do is possible but sort of lost as to
how to approach this.

I'd like to track resource usage of a specific app over time.  All I
came up with is running a looping script using `ps' and `grep' every
few minutes.

Is there something better available?

In particular, I've noticed the `fam' replacement `gamin' seems to be
a nasty little resource hog at times.  I wondered if it even needs to
be running?

  rpm -qi gamin gives a nearly useless bit of info:

  Description : This C library provides an API and ABI compatible file
  alteration monitor mechanism compatible with FAM but not dependent
  on a system wide daemon.

But also would like to track a few other things just to see what they
are doing over time.