diff --git a/src/include/pg_config_manual.h b/src/include/pg_config_manual.h
index f10ad0acd6..e28c990382 100644
--- a/src/include/pg_config_manual.h
+++ b/src/include/pg_config_manual.h
@@ -135,6 +135,13 @@
 #define EXEC_BACKEND
 #endif
 
+/*
+ * Define this if your operating system supports link()
+ */
+#if !defined(WIN32) && !defined(__CYGWIN__)
+#define HAVE_WORKING_LINK 1
+#endif
+
 /*
  * USE_POSIX_FADVISE controls whether Postgres will attempt to use the
  * posix_fadvise() kernel call.  Usually the automatic configure tests are
diff --git a/src/backend/storage/file/fd.c b/src/backend/storage/file/fd.c
index 110ba31517..92b1959648 100644
--- a/src/backend/storage/file/fd.c
+++ b/src/backend/storage/file/fd.c
@@ -820,6 +820,7 @@ durable_rename_excl(const char *oldfile, const char *newfile, int elevel)
 	if (fsync_fname_ext(oldfile, false, false, elevel) != 0)
 		return -1;
 
+#ifdef HAVE_WORKING_LINK
 	if (link(oldfile, newfile) < 0)
 	{
 		ereport(elevel,
@@ -829,6 +830,17 @@ durable_rename_excl(const char *oldfile, const char *newfile, int elevel)
 		return -1;
 	}
 	unlink(oldfile);
+#else
+	/* XXX: Add racy file existence check? */
+	if (rename(oldfile, newfile) < 0)
+	{
+		ereport(elevel,
+				(errcode_for_file_access(),
+				 errmsg("could not rename file \"%s\" to \"%s\": %m",
+						oldfile, newfile)));
+		return -1;
+	}
+#endif
 
 	/*
 	 * Make change persistent in case of an OS crash, both the new entry and