diff --git a/HOWTO.rst b/HOWTO.rst
index 158c5d897e..26a3c039a5 100644
--- a/HOWTO.rst
+++ b/HOWTO.rst
@@ -1110,12 +1110,6 @@ I/O type
 	OpenBSD and ZFS on Solaris don't support direct I/O.  On Windows the synchronous
 	ioengines don't support direct I/O.  Default: false.
 
-.. option:: atomic=bool
-
-	If value is true, attempt to use atomic direct I/O. Atomic writes are
-	guaranteed to be stable once acknowledged by the operating system. Only
-	Linux supports O_ATOMIC right now.
-
 .. option:: buffered=bool
 
 	If value is true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the
diff --git a/backend.c b/backend.c
index 0ccc7c2b72..9e981bf408 100644
--- a/backend.c
+++ b/backend.c
@@ -1333,7 +1333,7 @@ int init_io_u_buffers(struct thread_data *td)
 	 * overflow later. this adjustment may be too much if we get
 	 * lucky and the allocator gives us an aligned address.
 	 */
-	if (td->o.odirect || td->o.mem_align || td->o.oatomic ||
+	if (td->o.odirect || td->o.mem_align ||
 	    td_ioengine_flagged(td, FIO_RAWIO))
 		td->orig_buffer_size += page_mask + td->o.mem_align;
 
@@ -1352,7 +1352,7 @@ int init_io_u_buffers(struct thread_data *td)
 	if (data_xfer && allocate_io_mem(td))
 		return 1;
 
-	if (td->o.odirect || td->o.mem_align || td->o.oatomic ||
+	if (td->o.odirect || td->o.mem_align ||
 	    td_ioengine_flagged(td, FIO_RAWIO))
 		p = PTR_ALIGN(td->orig_buffer, page_mask) + td->o.mem_align;
 	else
diff --git a/engines/ime.c b/engines/ime.c
index f6690cc16c..037b8419e2 100644
--- a/engines/ime.c
+++ b/engines/ime.c
@@ -188,10 +188,6 @@ static int fio_ime_open_file(struct thread_data *td, struct fio_file *f)
 		return 1;
 	}
 
-	if (td->o.oatomic) {
-		td_verror(td, EINVAL, "IME does not support atomic IO");
-		return 1;
-	}
 	if (td->o.odirect)
 		flags |= O_DIRECT;
 	flags |= td->o.sync_io;
diff --git a/engines/libzbc.c b/engines/libzbc.c
index cb3e9ca545..1bf1e8c8d8 100644
--- a/engines/libzbc.c
+++ b/engines/libzbc.c
@@ -71,12 +71,6 @@ static int libzbc_open_dev(struct thread_data *td, struct fio_file *f,
 			flags |= O_RDONLY;
 	}
 
-	if (td->o.oatomic) {
-		td_verror(td, EINVAL, "libzbc does not support O_ATOMIC");
-		log_err("%s: libzbc does not support O_ATOMIC\n", f->file_name);
-		return -EINVAL;
-	}
-
 	ld = calloc(1, sizeof(*ld));
 	if (!ld)
 		return -ENOMEM;
diff --git a/filesetup.c b/filesetup.c
index cb7047c5af..1836d7e2a1 100644
--- a/filesetup.c
+++ b/filesetup.c
@@ -741,13 +741,6 @@ int generic_open_file(struct thread_data *td, struct fio_file *f)
 		goto skip_flags;
 	if (td->o.odirect)
 		flags |= OS_O_DIRECT;
-	if (td->o.oatomic) {
-		if (!FIO_O_ATOMIC) {
-			td_verror(td, EINVAL, "OS does not support atomic IO");
-			return 1;
-		}
-		flags |= OS_O_DIRECT | FIO_O_ATOMIC;
-	}
 	flags |= td->o.sync_io;
 	if (td->o.create_on_open && td->o.allow_create)
 		flags |= O_CREAT;
diff --git a/fio.1 b/fio.1
index 00a0935390..9ec90133ae 100644
--- a/fio.1
+++ b/fio.1
@@ -873,11 +873,6 @@ If value is true, use non-buffered I/O. This is usually O_DIRECT. Note that
 OpenBSD and ZFS on Solaris don't support direct I/O. On Windows the synchronous
 ioengines don't support direct I/O. Default: false.
 .TP
-.BI atomic \fR=\fPbool
-If value is true, attempt to use atomic direct I/O. Atomic writes are
-guaranteed to be stable once acknowledged by the operating system. Only
-Linux supports O_ATOMIC right now.
-.TP
 .BI buffered \fR=\fPbool
 If value is true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the
 \fBdirect\fR option. Defaults to true.
diff --git a/init.c b/init.c
index f6a8056a2d..78c6c80351 100644
--- a/init.c
+++ b/init.c
@@ -916,12 +916,6 @@ static int fixup_options(struct thread_data *td)
 		ret |= 1;
 	}
 
-	/*
-	 * O_ATOMIC implies O_DIRECT
-	 */
-	if (o->oatomic)
-		o->odirect = 1;
-
 	/*
 	 * If randseed is set, that overrides randrepeat
 	 */
diff --git a/memory.c b/memory.c
index 577d3dd5af..2fdca65768 100644
--- a/memory.c
+++ b/memory.c
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ int allocate_io_mem(struct thread_data *td)
 
 	total_mem = td->orig_buffer_size;
 
-	if (td->o.odirect || td->o.mem_align || td->o.oatomic ||
+	if (td->o.odirect || td->o.mem_align ||
 	    td_ioengine_flagged(td, FIO_MEMALIGN)) {
 		total_mem += page_mask;
 		if (td->o.mem_align && td->o.mem_align > page_size)
@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ void free_io_mem(struct thread_data *td)
 	unsigned int total_mem;
 
 	total_mem = td->orig_buffer_size;
-	if (td->o.odirect || td->o.oatomic)
+	if (td->o.odirect)
 		total_mem += page_mask;
 
 	if (td->io_ops->iomem_alloc && !fio_option_is_set(&td->o, mem_type)) {
diff --git a/os/os-linux.h b/os/os-linux.h
index bbb1f27c82..7a78b42d4d 100644
--- a/os/os-linux.h
+++ b/os/os-linux.h
@@ -205,12 +205,6 @@ static inline unsigned long long os_phys_mem(void)
 #define FIO_O_NOATIME	0
 #endif
 
-#ifdef O_ATOMIC
-#define OS_O_ATOMIC	O_ATOMIC
-#else
-#define OS_O_ATOMIC	040000000
-#endif
-
 #ifdef MADV_REMOVE
 #define FIO_MADV_FREE	MADV_REMOVE
 #endif
diff --git a/os/os.h b/os/os.h
index c428260ca4..ebaf8af5e2 100644
--- a/os/os.h
+++ b/os/os.h
@@ -133,12 +133,6 @@ extern int fio_cpus_split(os_cpu_mask_t *mask, unsigned int cpu);
 #define OS_O_DIRECT			O_DIRECT
 #endif
 
-#ifdef OS_O_ATOMIC
-#define FIO_O_ATOMIC			OS_O_ATOMIC
-#else
-#define FIO_O_ATOMIC			0
-#endif
-
 #ifndef FIO_HAVE_HUGETLB
 #define SHM_HUGETLB			0
 #define MAP_HUGETLB			0