Use common file argument system previously implemented by @sivel for rax modules on the file modules as well (copy/file/template).

Application to other cloud providers would make very good sense.

lib/ansible/utils/module_docs.py

@@ -63,17 +63,26 @@ def get_docstring(filename, verbose=False):
                     else:
                         fragment_name, fragment_var = fragment_slug, 'DOCUMENTATION'
 
+
+                    if fragment_slug != 'doesnotexist':
                         fragment_class = utils.plugins.fragment_loader.get(fragment_name)
-                    if fragment_class:
+                        assert fragment_class is not None
+
                         fragment_yaml = getattr(fragment_class, fragment_var, '{}')
                         fragment = yaml.safe_load(fragment_yaml)
+
                         if fragment.has_key('notes'):
                             notes = fragment.pop('notes')
                             if notes:
                                 if not doc.has_key('notes'):
                                     doc['notes'] = []
                                 doc['notes'].extend(notes)
+
+                        if 'options' not in fragment.keys():
+                            raise Exception("missing options in fragment, possibly misformatted?")
+
                         for key, value in fragment.items():
+
                             if not doc.has_key(key):
                                 doc[key] = value
                             else:

library/files/copy

@@ -83,11 +83,8 @@ options:
         defaults.
     required: false
     version_added: "1.5"
-  others:
-    description:
-      - all arguments accepted by the M(file) module also work here
-    required: false
 author: Michael DeHaan
+extends_documentation_fragment: files.DOCUMENTATION
 notes:
    - The "copy" module recursively copy facility does not scale to lots (>hundreds) of files.
      For alternative, see synchronize module, which is a wrapper around rsync.

library/files/file

@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ DOCUMENTATION = '''
 module: file
 version_added: "historical"
 short_description: Sets attributes of files
+extends_documentation_fragment: files
 description: 
      - Sets attributes of files, symlinks, and directories, or removes
        files/symlinks/directories. Many other modules support the same options as
@@ -58,24 +59,6 @@ options:
     required: false
     default: file
     choices: [ file, link, directory, hard, touch, absent ]
-  mode:
-    required: false
-    default: null
-    choices: []
-    description:
-      - mode the file or directory should be, such as 0644 as would be fed to I(chmod)
-  owner:
-    required: false
-    default: null
-    choices: []
-    description:
-      - name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to I(chown)
-  group:
-    required: false
-    default: null
-    choices: []
-    description:
-      - name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to I(chown)
   src:
     required: false
     default: null
@@ -83,34 +66,6 @@ options:
     description:
       - path of the file to link to (applies only to C(state= link or hard)). Will accept absolute,
         relative and nonexisting (with C(force)) paths. Relative paths are not expanded.
-  seuser:
-    required: false
-    default: null
-    choices: []
-    description:
-      - user part of SELinux file context. Will default to system policy, if
-        applicable. If set to C(_default), it will use the C(user) portion of the
-        policy if available
-  serole:
-    required: false
-    default: null
-    choices: []
-    description:
-      - role part of SELinux file context, C(_default) feature works as for I(seuser).
-  setype:
-    required: false
-    default: null
-    choices: []
-    description:
-      - type part of SELinux file context, C(_default) feature works as for I(seuser).
-  selevel:
-    required: false
-    default: "s0"
-    choices: []
-    description:
-      - level part of the SELinux file context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute,
-        sometimes known as the C(range). C(_default) feature works as for
-        I(seuser).
   recurse:
     required: false
     default: "no"
@@ -118,13 +73,6 @@ options:
     version_added: "1.1"
     description:
       - recursively set the specified file attributes (applies only to state=directory)
-  force:
-    required: false
-    default: "no"
-    choices: [ "yes", "no" ]
-    description:
-      - 'force the creation of the symlinks when the destination exists and is a file (so, we need to unlink the
-        "path" file and create symlink to the "src" file in place of it).'
 notes:
     - See also M(copy), M(template), M(assemble)
 requirements: [ ]

library/files/template

@@ -47,10 +47,6 @@ options:
     required: false
     default: ""
     version_added: "1.2"
-  others:
-    description:
-      - all arguments accepted by the M(file) module also work here, as well as the M(copy) module (except the the 'content' parameter).
-    required: false
 notes:
   - "Since Ansible version 0.9, templates are loaded with C(trim_blocks=True)."
 
@@ -59,6 +55,7 @@ notes:
   which changes the variable interpolation markers to  [% var %] instead of  {{ var }}. This is the best way to prevent evaluation of things that look like, but should not be Jinja2.  raw/endraw in Jinja2 will not work as you expect because templates in Ansible are recursively evaluated."
 
 requirements: []
+extends_documentation_fragment: files.DOCUMENTATION
 author: Michael DeHaan
 '''