@@ -28,14 +28,14 @@ import stat

 import tempfile

 import time

-from six import string_types, iteritems

+from six import binary_type, text_type, iteritems

 from six.moves import StringIO

 from ansible import constants as C

 from ansible.errors import AnsibleError, AnsibleConnectionFailure

 from ansible.executor.module_common import modify_module

 from ansible.parsing.utils.jsonify import jsonify

-from ansible.utils.unicode import to_bytes

+from ansible.utils.unicode import to_bytes, to_unicode

 try:

     from __main__ import display

@@ -479,13 +479,23 @@ class ActionBase:

         rc, stdout, stderr = self._connection.exec_command(cmd, in_data=in_data, sudoable=sudoable)

         self._display.debug("command execution done")

-        if not isinstance(stdout, string_types):

-            out = ''.join(stdout.readlines())

+        # stdout and stderr may be either a file-like or a bytes object.

+        # Convert either one to a text type

+        # Note: when we address non-utf-8 data we'll have to figure out

+        # a better strategy than errors='strict'.  Perhaps pass the

+        # errors argument into this method so that the caller can decide or

+        # even make the caller convert to text type so they can choose.

+        if isinstance(stdout, binary_type):

+            out = to_unicode(stdout, errors='strict')

+        elif not isinstance(stdout, text_type):

+            out = to_unicode(b''.join(stdout.readlines()), errors='strict')

         else:

             out = stdout

-        if not isinstance(stderr, string_types):

-            err = ''.join(stderr.readlines())

+        if isinstance(stderr, binary_type):

+            err = to_unicode(stderr, errors='strict')

+        elif not isinstance(stderr, text_type):

+            err = to_unicode(b''.join(stderr.readlines()), errors='strict')

         else:

             err = stderr