the total footprint of the program. if you want to get more specific and see what exactly is growing, i would gdb the app and see which part of your code is not cleaning up after itself.... i can almost bet that you can stop it from using that much ram if you start dereferencing unused pointers
top just tells you which process is running and how much ram and processor it uses (btw i prefer htop for its coloring features)...
if you have problems with seeing all the procs running, like it only shows you user processes, i would sudo it

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Microsoft, the leader in using innovative tactics to promote irksome experience, coupled with antiquated technology that's held together by a pyramid of makeshift afterthoughts.
Apple, the leader in using irksome tactics to promote innovative experience, coupled with an antiquated core that's enhanced by state-of-the-art afterthoughts.
Linux, the leader in not using any tactics to promote user-defined experience, coupled with state-of-the-art core enhanced by innovative afterthoughts.
