diff --git a/src/common/remoteio.h b/src/common/remoteio.h
--- a/src/common/remoteio.h
+++ b/src/common/remoteio.h
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ struct remoteio {
 
    @todo should this be asynchronous?
  */
-int remoteio_open(struct remoteio **rem, struct remoteio_opts *opts, char *servername);
+int remoteio_open(struct remoteio **rem, struct remoteio_opts *opts, const char *servername);
 
 /**
    non-blocking I/O.