Any way to get cpu usage and esp for a process in linux?

[sfullman]

I have the standard lamp server.

I want to use php to read the % of cpu usage at the present time. Ideally, I'd like to use php to read the % cpu usage specifically of mysqld (the database server).

FYI I would not be able to reliably nail down the PID (process id) number since the server or mysql may have restarted.

This would be helpful, Thanks!

Sam