All copy* functions and move() are subjects to race conditions (the only exception is rmtree()). You may solve the race condition in copyfile() but then you'd have the same problem in copystat() and copymode() which are used by copy() and copy2(). The definitive solution to this problem would theoretically be to have all these interconnected functions pass fds instead of "paths" but of course that is hardly possible. Personally I don't think this issue is worth being fixed.