diff --git a/src/common/remoteio.h b/src/common/execio.h
copy from src/common/remoteio.h
copy to src/common/execio.h
--- a/src/common/remoteio.h
+++ b/src/common/execio.h
@@ -17,16 +17,23 @@
   along with DistRen.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */
 
-#ifndef _DISTREN_REMOTEIO_H
-#define _DISTREN_REMOTEIO_H
+#ifndef _DISTREN_EXECIO_H
+#define _DISTREN_EXECIO_H
 
 /*
-  This file tries to abstract away getting a socket/fd that talks to a remote service
+  This file tries to abstract away getting a socket/fd that talks to a spawned program
  */
 
 #include <unistd.h>
 
-struct remoteio
+enum execio_state
+  {
+    EXECIO_STATE_ERROR,
+    EXECIO_STATE_EOF
+  };
+  
+
+struct execio
 {
   int pipe_write;
   int pipe_read;
@@ -35,14 +42,19 @@ struct remoteio
 };
 
 /* nonzsero return on error */
-int remoteio_open(const char *spec, struct remoteio **rem);
+int execio_open(const char *spec, struct execio **eio);
 
-/* blocks, returns 0 if len is 0 or on error */
-size_t remoteio_read(struct remoteio *rem, void *buf, size_t len);
-size_t remoteio_write(struct remoteio *rem, void *buf, size_t len);
+/* 
+   blocks, 
+   returns 0 if len is 0. Otherwise, only returns 0 on error/EOF: use execio_state() to determine
+*/
+size_t execio_read(struct execio *eio, void *buf, size_t len);
+size_t execio_write(struct execio *eio, void *buf, size_t len);
+
+enum execio_state execio_state(struct execio *eio);
 
 /* nonzero return on error */
-int remoteio_close(struct remoteio *rem);
+int execio_close(struct execio *eio);
 
 #endif