diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
index 8b6024f3db..80067daaeb 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
@@ -216,7 +216,8 @@ _literal_eval = literal_eval
 _ANSIBLE_ARGS = None
 
 FILE_COMMON_ARGUMENTS = dict(
-    src=dict(),
+    # These are things we want. About setting metadata (mode, ownership, permissions in general) on
+    # created files
     mode=dict(type='raw'),
     owner=dict(),
     group=dict(),
@@ -224,17 +225,23 @@ FILE_COMMON_ARGUMENTS = dict(
     serole=dict(),
     selevel=dict(),
     setype=dict(),
-    follow=dict(type='bool', default=False),
-    # not taken by the file module, but other modules call file so it must ignore them.
-    content=dict(no_log=True),
-    backup=dict(),
-    force=dict(),
+    attributes=dict(aliases=['attr']),
+
+    # The following are not about perms and should not be in a rewritten file_common_args
+    src=dict(),  # Maybe dest or path would be appropriate but src is not
+    follow=dict(type='bool', default=False), # Maybe follow is appropriate because it determines whether to follow symlinks for permission purposes too
+    force=dict(type='bool'),
+
+    # not taken by the file module, but other action plugins call the file module so this ignores
+    # them for now. In the future, the caller should take care of removing these from the module
+    # arugments before calling the file module.
+    content=dict(no_log=True),  # used by copy
+    backup=dict(),  # Used by a few modules to create a remote backup before updating the file
     remote_src=dict(),  # used by assemble
     regexp=dict(),  # used by assemble
     delimiter=dict(),  # used by assemble
     directory_mode=dict(),  # used by copy
     unsafe_writes=dict(type='bool'),  # should be available to any module using atomic_move
-    attributes=dict(aliases=['attr']),
 )
 
 PASSWD_ARG_RE = re.compile(r'^[-]{0,2}pass[-]?(word|wd)?')