diff --git a/lib/ansible/executor/module_common.py b/lib/ansible/executor/module_common.py
index f0e307cba0b..e6fa2148b8d 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/executor/module_common.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/executor/module_common.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
 __metaclass__ = type
 
 # from python and deps
-from ansible.compat.six.moves import StringIO
+from io import BytesIO
 import json
 import os
 import shlex
@@ -30,20 +30,20 @@ import shlex
 from ansible import __version__
 from ansible import constants as C
 from ansible.errors import AnsibleError
-from ansible.utils.unicode import to_bytes
+from ansible.utils.unicode import to_bytes, to_unicode
 
-REPLACER          = "#<<INCLUDE_ANSIBLE_MODULE_COMMON>>"
-REPLACER_ARGS     = "\"<<INCLUDE_ANSIBLE_MODULE_ARGS>>\""
-REPLACER_COMPLEX  = "\"<<INCLUDE_ANSIBLE_MODULE_COMPLEX_ARGS>>\""
-REPLACER_WINDOWS  = "# POWERSHELL_COMMON"
-REPLACER_WINARGS  = "<<INCLUDE_ANSIBLE_MODULE_WINDOWS_ARGS>>"
-REPLACER_JSONARGS = "<<INCLUDE_ANSIBLE_MODULE_JSON_ARGS>>"
-REPLACER_VERSION  = "\"<<ANSIBLE_VERSION>>\""
-REPLACER_SELINUX  = "<<SELINUX_SPECIAL_FILESYSTEMS>>"
+REPLACER          = b"#<<INCLUDE_ANSIBLE_MODULE_COMMON>>"
+REPLACER_ARGS     = b"\"<<INCLUDE_ANSIBLE_MODULE_ARGS>>\""
+REPLACER_COMPLEX  = b"\"<<INCLUDE_ANSIBLE_MODULE_COMPLEX_ARGS>>\""
+REPLACER_WINDOWS  = b"# POWERSHELL_COMMON"
+REPLACER_WINARGS  = b"<<INCLUDE_ANSIBLE_MODULE_WINDOWS_ARGS>>"
+REPLACER_JSONARGS = b"<<INCLUDE_ANSIBLE_MODULE_JSON_ARGS>>"
+REPLACER_VERSION  = b"\"<<ANSIBLE_VERSION>>\""
+REPLACER_SELINUX  = b"<<SELINUX_SPECIAL_FILESYSTEMS>>"
 
 # We could end up writing out parameters with unicode characters so we need to
 # specify an encoding for the python source file
-ENCODING_STRING = '# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-'
+ENCODING_STRING = b'# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-'
 
 # we've moved the module_common relative to the snippets, so fix the path
 _SNIPPET_PATH = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..', 'module_utils')
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ _SNIPPET_PATH = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..', 'module_utils')
 def _slurp(path):
     if not os.path.exists(path):
         raise AnsibleError("imported module support code does not exist at %s" % path)
-    fd = open(path)
+    fd = open(path, 'rb')
     data = fd.read()
     fd.close()
     return data
@@ -71,49 +71,49 @@ def _find_snippet_imports(module_data, module_path, strip_comments):
         module_style = 'new'
     elif REPLACER_JSONARGS in module_data:
         module_style = 'new'
-    elif 'from ansible.module_utils.' in module_data:
+    elif b'from ansible.module_utils.' in module_data:
         module_style = 'new'
-    elif 'WANT_JSON' in module_data:
+    elif b'WANT_JSON' in module_data:
         module_style = 'non_native_want_json'
 
-    output = StringIO()
-    lines = module_data.split('\n')
+    output = BytesIO()
+    lines = module_data.split(b'\n')
     snippet_names = []
 
     for line in lines:
 
         if REPLACER in line:
             output.write(_slurp(os.path.join(_SNIPPET_PATH, "basic.py")))
-            snippet_names.append('basic')
+            snippet_names.append(b'basic')
         if REPLACER_WINDOWS in line:
             ps_data = _slurp(os.path.join(_SNIPPET_PATH, "powershell.ps1"))
             output.write(ps_data)
-            snippet_names.append('powershell')
-        elif line.startswith('from ansible.module_utils.'):
-            tokens=line.split(".")
+            snippet_names.append(b'powershell')
+        elif line.startswith(b'from ansible.module_utils.'):
+            tokens=line.split(b".")
             import_error = False
             if len(tokens) != 3:
                 import_error = True
-            if " import *" not in line:
+            if b" import *" not in line:
                 import_error = True
             if import_error:
                 raise AnsibleError("error importing module in %s, expecting format like 'from ansible.module_utils.<lib name> import *'" % module_path)
             snippet_name = tokens[2].split()[0]
             snippet_names.append(snippet_name)
-            output.write(_slurp(os.path.join(_SNIPPET_PATH, snippet_name + ".py")))
+            output.write(_slurp(os.path.join(_SNIPPET_PATH, to_unicode(snippet_name) + ".py")))
         else:
-            if strip_comments and line.startswith("#") or line == '':
+            if strip_comments and line.startswith(b"#") or line == b'':
                 pass
             output.write(line)
-            output.write("\n")
+            output.write(b"\n")
 
     if not module_path.endswith(".ps1"):
         # Unixy modules
-        if len(snippet_names) > 0 and not 'basic' in snippet_names:
+        if len(snippet_names) > 0 and not b'basic' in snippet_names:
             raise AnsibleError("missing required import in %s: from ansible.module_utils.basic import *" % module_path)
     else:
         # Windows modules
-        if len(snippet_names) > 0 and not 'powershell' in snippet_names:
+        if len(snippet_names) > 0 and not b'powershell' in snippet_names:
             raise AnsibleError("missing required import in %s: # POWERSHELL_COMMON" % module_path)
 
     return (output.getvalue(), module_style)
@@ -158,28 +158,28 @@ def modify_module(module_path, module_args, task_vars=dict(), strip_comments=Fal
     # * Cache the modified module?  If only the args are different and we do
     #   that as the last step we could cache all the work up to that point.
 
-    with open(module_path) as f:
+    with open(module_path, 'rb') as f:
 
         # read in the module source
         module_data = f.read()
 
     (module_data, module_style) = _find_snippet_imports(module_data, module_path, strip_comments)
 
-    module_args_json = json.dumps(module_args).encode('utf-8')
-    python_repred_args = repr(module_args_json)
+    module_args_json = to_bytes(json.dumps(module_args))
+    python_repred_args = to_bytes(repr(module_args_json))
 
     # these strings should be part of the 'basic' snippet which is required to be included
-    module_data = module_data.replace(REPLACER_VERSION, repr(__version__))
+    module_data = module_data.replace(REPLACER_VERSION, to_bytes(__version__, nonstring='repr'))
     module_data = module_data.replace(REPLACER_COMPLEX, python_repred_args)
     module_data = module_data.replace(REPLACER_WINARGS, module_args_json)
     module_data = module_data.replace(REPLACER_JSONARGS, module_args_json)
-    module_data = module_data.replace(REPLACER_SELINUX, ','.join(C.DEFAULT_SELINUX_SPECIAL_FS))
+    module_data = module_data.replace(REPLACER_SELINUX, to_bytes(','.join(C.DEFAULT_SELINUX_SPECIAL_FS)))
 
     if module_style == 'new':
         facility = C.DEFAULT_SYSLOG_FACILITY
         if 'ansible_syslog_facility' in task_vars:
             facility = task_vars['ansible_syslog_facility']
-        module_data = module_data.replace('syslog.LOG_USER', "syslog.%s" % facility)
+        module_data = module_data.replace(b'syslog.LOG_USER', to_bytes("syslog.%s" % facility))
 
     lines = module_data.split(b"\n", 1)
     shebang = None
@@ -188,12 +188,13 @@ def modify_module(module_path, module_args, task_vars=dict(), strip_comments=Fal
         args = shlex.split(str(shebang[2:]))
         interpreter = args[0]
         interpreter_config = 'ansible_%s_interpreter' % os.path.basename(interpreter)
+        interpreter = to_bytes(interpreter)
 
         if interpreter_config in task_vars:
             interpreter = to_bytes(task_vars[interpreter_config], errors='strict')
             lines[0] = shebang = b"#!{0} {1}".format(interpreter, b" ".join(args[1:]))
 
-        if os.path.basename(interpreter).startswith('python'):
+        if os.path.basename(interpreter).startswith(b'python'):
             lines.insert(1, ENCODING_STRING)
     else:
         # No shebang, assume a binary module?