diff --git a/authorized_key b/authorized_key
index 5ba06fc2b2f..0664727bbdb 100755
--- a/authorized_key
+++ b/authorized_key
@@ -125,13 +125,7 @@ def writekeys(module, filename, keys):
     except IOError, e:
         module.fail_json(msg="Failed to write to file %s: %s" % (tmp_path, str(e)))
     f.close()
-    try:
-        shutil.copyfile(tmp_path, filename)
-        os.unlink(tmp_path)
-    except IOError, e:
-        module.fail_json(msg="Failed to copy temp file to %s: %s" % (filename, str(e)))
-    except OSError, e:
-        module.fail_json(msg="Failed to remove temp file: %s" % str(e))
+    module.atomic_replace(tmp_path, filename)
 
 def enforce_state(module, params):
     """
diff --git a/copy b/copy
index 7f7f501a3a3..3ba1de781ec 100755
--- a/copy
+++ b/copy
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ def main():
             # might be an issue with exceeding path length
             dest_tmp = "%s.%s.%s.tmp" % (dest,os.getpid(),time.time())
             shutil.copyfile(src, dest_tmp)
-            shutil.move(dest_tmp, dest)
+            module.atomic_replace(dest_tmp, dest)
         except shutil.Error:
             module.fail_json(msg="failed to copy: %s and %s are the same" % (src, dest))
         except IOError: