diff --git a/lib/std/Io/Dir.zig b/lib/std/Io/Dir.zig
index a5bce6c76fdcf848b4f63e0d9100454804f5bb3f..3aec198dd8bc0f02505a647e4cd17c895d90c6e9 100644
--- a/lib/std/Io/Dir.zig
+++ b/lib/std/Io/Dir.zig
@@ -1122,8 +1122,7 @@ pub const RenamePreserveError = error{
     /// policy of the current thread or process disallows dataless directory materialization.
     AccessDenied,
     PathAlreadyExists,
-    /// Operating system or file system does not support atomic nonreplacing
-    /// rename.
+    /// Operating system or file system does not support atomic nonreplacing rename.
     OperationUnsupported,
 } || RenameError;
 
@@ -1131,6 +1130,12 @@ pub const RenamePreserveError = error{
 ///
 /// If `new_sub_path` already exists, `error.PathAlreadyExists` will be returned.
 ///
+/// If the operating system supports it, the entire operation will be done atomically. If unsupported, will
+/// fall back to hard link followed by unlink, which is atomic with respect to `new_sub_path` but leaves a
+/// window where the cleanup of `old_sub_path may fail. Although the operation is fairly portable, technically
+/// this fallback, too, may be unsupported in some environments, in which case `error.OperationUnsupported` is
+/// returned.
+///
 /// * On Windows, both paths should be encoded as [WTF-8](https://wtf-8.codeberg.page/).
 /// * On WASI, both paths should be encoded as valid UTF-8.
 /// * On other platforms, both paths are an opaque sequence of bytes with no particular encoding.
diff --git a/lib/std/Io/Threaded.zig b/lib/std/Io/Threaded.zig
index 1e42814e0cd9d41afbb651cf6b1bc7623fd87163..5df6c2f58541eee78fccf5d14a749f3dd933daa8 100644
--- a/lib/std/Io/Threaded.zig
+++ b/lib/std/Io/Threaded.zig
@@ -7734,7 +7734,14 @@ fn dirRenamePreserve(
     const t: *Threaded = @ptrCast(@alignCast(userdata));
     if (is_windows) return dirRenameWindowsInner(old_dir, old_sub_path, new_dir, new_sub_path, false);
     if (is_darwin) return dirRenamePreserveDarwin(old_dir, old_sub_path, new_dir, new_sub_path);
-    if (native_os == .linux) return dirRenamePreserveLinux(old_dir, old_sub_path, new_dir, new_sub_path);
+    if (native_os == .linux) {
+        if (dirRenamePreserveLinux(old_dir, old_sub_path, new_dir, new_sub_path)) |_| {
+            return;
+        } else |err| switch (err) {
+            else => |e| return e,
+            error.OperationUnsupported => {}, // Fall back to link/unlink below.
+        }
+    }
     // Make a hard link then delete the original.
     try dirHardLink(t, old_dir, old_sub_path, new_dir, new_sub_path, .{ .follow_symlinks = false });
     const prev = swapCancelProtection(t, .blocked);
@@ -8062,8 +8069,10 @@ fn dirRenamePreserveLinux(
         .ROFS => return syscall.fail(error.ReadOnlyFileSystem),
         .XDEV => return syscall.fail(error.CrossDevice),
         .ILSEQ => return syscall.fail(error.BadPathName),
+        // EINVAL when passing NOREPLACE=true observed on ext4, 7.0.0-38-generic #38~24.04.4-Ubuntu.
+        // OPNOTSUPP handled defensively.
+        .INVAL, .OPNOTSUPP => return syscall.fail(error.OperationUnsupported),
         .FAULT => |err| return syscall.errnoBug(err),
-        .INVAL => return syscall.fail(error.OperationUnsupported),
         else => |err| return syscall.unexpectedErrno(err),
     };
 }