The process whose root activity a program currently has access to. A program acquires a process in one of two ways: either by defining it; or, if the process already exists, by issuing an ACQUIRE PROCESS command. The process remains acquired until the next syncpoint occurs. Acquiring a process enables the program to read and write to the process's data-containers, read and write to the root activity's data-containers and issue various commands, including RUN and LINK, against the process. A program can acquire only one process (root activity) or one descendant activity within the same unit of work. See also acquired activity.