1. In a data processing system in which access to a physical file is shared among a plurality of users, a method of minimizing physical write operations, comprising the steps of: (a) initializing one of a plurality of buffers that comprise a shared buffer pool with data from the physical file; (b) controlling users' write requests to the physical file from said one of said plurality of buffers that comprise said shared buffer pool, such that the plurality of users share substantially simultaneous write access to the physical file copied in said one of said plurality of buffers, and wherein a single write operation from said one of said plurality of buffers to the physical file is performed after writes by at least one of the plurality of users to said one of said plurality of buffers; (c) reporting status information to the users who had written to said one of said plurality of buffers when a write operation of the contents of said one of said plurality of buffers to the physical file fails.