diff --git a/src/common/libremoteio.h b/src/common/libremoteio.h
--- a/src/common/libremoteio.h
+++ b/src/common/libremoteio.h
@@ -58,6 +58,9 @@ struct remoteio {
   enum remoteio_method method;
   struct remoteio_opts *opts;
   struct execio *execio;
+#ifndef WINDOWS
+  int sock;
+#endif
 };
 
 
diff --git a/src/common/remoteio.c b/src/common/remoteio.c
--- a/src/common/remoteio.c
+++ b/src/common/remoteio.c
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <string.h>
+#ifndef WINDOWS
+#include <sys/socket.h>
+#include <sys/un.h>
+#endif
 
 /* local */
 
@@ -270,8 +274,41 @@ int _remoteio_ssh_close(struct remoteio 
  */
 int _remoteio_sock_open(struct remoteio *rem, struct remoteio_server *server)
 {
+  int sock;
+  struct sockaddr_un sockaddr;
+  /*
+    The POSIX docs pretty much say that I can't depend on sockpath being able to be longer than 
+    some proprietary length. So, if the compiler specifies a long path for RUNSTATEDIR, it could
+    cause a buffer overflow.
+   */
+  char *sockpath = RUNSTATEDIR "/distrend.sock";
+  unsigned int sockaddr_len;
 
-  return 1;
+  sock = socket(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
+  if(sock == -1)
+    {
+      perror("socket");
+      return 1;
+    }
+
+  sockaddr.sun_family = AF_UNIX;
+  /*
+    The terminating NULL should not be included in what's copied to sun_path,
+    although it won't hurt as long as strlen(sockpath) < max socket length
+   */
+  for(sockaddr_len = 0; sockpath[sockaddr_len]; sockaddr_len ++)
+    sockaddr.sun_path[sockaddr_len] = sockpath[sockaddr_len];
+
+  if(connect(sock, (struct sockaddr *)&sockaddr, sockaddr_len) == -1)
+    {
+      perror("connect");
+      close(sock);
+      return 1;
+    }
+
+  rem->sock = sock;
+
+  return 0;
 }
 
 int _remoteio_sock_read(struct remoteio *rem, void *buf, size_t len, size_t *bytesread)