diff --git a/src/common/libremoteio.h b/src/common/libremoteio.h
--- a/src/common/libremoteio.h
+++ b/src/common/libremoteio.h
@@ -29,9 +29,10 @@
 
 enum remoteio_method
   {
-    REMOTEIO_METHOD_SSH,
+    REMOTEIO_METHOD_SSH = 0,
     /*    REMOTEIO_METHOD_TCP */ /*< someday, maybe */
     /*    REMOETIO_METHOD_XMLRPC */ /*< again, maybe someday */
+    REMOTEIO_METHOD_MAX = 1 /*< This is a number used to check the consitency of remoteio_server structs */
   };
 
 struct remoteio_server
@@ -52,10 +53,27 @@ struct remoteio_opts
 
 struct remoteio {
   enum remoteio_method method;
+  struct remoteio_opts *opts;
   struct execio *execio;
 };
 
 
+/* lookup table */
+typedef int remoteio_open_func_t(struct remoteio *rem, struct remoteio_server *server);
+typedef int remoteio_read_func_t(struct remoteio *rem, void *buf, size_t len, size_t *bytesread);
+typedef int remoteio_write_func_t(struct remoteio *rem, void *buf, size_t len, size_t *bytesread);
+typedef int remoteio_close_func_t(struct remoteio *rem);
+
+struct remoteio_method_funcmap
+{
+  remoteio_open_func_t *open_func;
+  remoteio_read_func_t *read_func;
+  remoteio_write_func_t *write_func;
+  remoteio_close_func_t *close_func;
+
+  char *name; /*< used for error messages */
+};
+
 int remoteio_config(cfg_t *cfg, struct remoteio_opts *opts);
 
 #endif