Correct way to invoke the copy module with module param 'content' - plugins

Question

I have a custom action plugin and I need to write out returned variable data on the controller to a file. I'm trying this locally right now.
copy_module_args = dict()
copy_module_args["content"] = 'test'
copy_module_args["dest"] = dest
copy_module_args["owner"] = owner
copy_module_args["group"] = group
copy_module_args["mode"] = mode
try:
result = merge_hash(result, self._execute_module(
module_name="copy",
module_args=copy_module_args,
task_vars=task_vars))
except (AnsibleError, TypeError) as err:
err_msg = "Failed to do stuff"
raise AnsibleActionFail(to_text(err_msg), to_text(err))
The result of ._execute_module is
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Source None not found"}
The vaule of result is
{'msg': 'Source None not found', 'failed': True, 'invocation': {'module_args': {'content': 'VALUE_SPECIFIED_IN_NO_LOG_PARAMETER', 'dest': '/home/me/testfile', 'owner': 'me', 'group': 'me', 'mode': None, 'backup': False, 'force': True, 'follow': False, 'src': None, '_original_basename': None, 'validate': None, 'directory_mode': None, 'remote_src': None, 'local_follow': None, 'checksum': None, 'seuser': None, 'serole': None, 'selevel': None, 'setype': None, 'attributes': None, 'regexp': None, 'delimiter': None, 'unsafe_writes': None}}, '_ansible_parsed': True}
This invocation is trying to use the "src" param even though I'm only passing the "content" param. I know this because when I add "src" the failure message changes. I excepted, from the docs and from reading the copy module and template module source that at a bare minimum my implementation would result in:
- name: Copy using inline content
copy:
content: 'test'
dest: /home/me/testfile
Does anyone know what I'm missing or why "src" is being preferred over "content" even though it's not being specified?

Answer 1

The content: argument is just syntatic sugar for writing it to a tempfile, so I would guess you will need to take charge of that, or find a way to invoke the copy action, which apparently runs before the copy module.

Answer 2

I was able to see that "content" was being handled in the action plugin, not the module. I've adapted what I found to fit my needs. I call the action plugin, instead of the module directly.
copy_module_args = dict()
copy_module_args["content"] = 'test'
copy_module_args["dest"] = dest
copy_module_args["owner"] = owner
copy_module_args["group"] = group
copy_module_args["mode"] = mode
copy_module_args["follow"] = True
copy_module_args["force"] = False
copy_action = self._task.copy()
copy_action.args.update(copy_module_args)
# Removing args passed in via the playbook that aren't meant for
# the copy module
for remove in ("arg1", "arg2", "arg3", "arg4"):
copy_action.args.pop(remove, None)
try:
copy_action = self._shared_loader_obj.action_loader.get('copy',
task=copy_action,
connection=self._connection,
play_context=self._play_context,
loader=self._loader,
templar=self._templar,
shared_loader_obj=self._shared_loader_obj)
result = merge_hash(result, copy_action.run(task_vars=task_vars))
This allows me to leverage copy how I originally intended, by utilising its idempotency and checksumming without having to write my own.
changed: [localhost] => {"changed": true, "checksum": "00830d74b4975d59049f6e0e7ce551477a3d9425", "dest": "/home/me/testfile", "gid": 1617705057, "group": "me", "md5sum": "6f007f4188a0d35835f4bb84a2548b66", "mode": "0644", "owner": "me", "size": 9, "src": "/home/me/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1560715301.737494-249856394953357/source", "state": "file", "uid": 1300225668}
And running it again,
ok: [localhost] => {"changed": false, "dest": "/home/me/testfile", "src": "/home/me/testfile/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-9531902t7jt3/tmp_nq34zm5"}