RENAME TABLE t TO t_old, t_copy TO t; No other sessions can access the tables involved while RENAME TABLE executes, so the rename operation is not subject to concurrency problems.
Atomic Rename is especially for completely reloading a table without waiting for DELETE and load to finish:
CREATE TABLE new LIKE real; load `new` by whatever means - LOAD DATA, INSERT, whatever RENAME TABLE real TO old, new TO real; DROP TABLE old;