diff --git a/src/server/distrenjob.h b/src/server/distrenjob.h
--- a/src/server/distrenjob.h
+++ b/src/server/distrenjob.h
@@ -84,10 +84,19 @@ struct frameset {
    distrenjob struct.
    @param pathtoxml filename/pathname of the xml file to be read into a distrenjob struct
  */
-int xml2distrenjob(struct distrenjob **distrenjob, char *pathtoxml);
+int distrenjob_unserialize(struct distrenjob **distrenjob, char *pathtoxml);
 
 /**
-   support function for xml2distrenjob() to help cleaning up a
+   serialize a distrenjob into XML
+   @param distrenjob the address where we will store the pointer of a malloc()ed
+   distrenjob struct.
+   @param xmloutput filename/pathname of the xml file to be written
+ */
+int distrenjob_serialize(struct distrenjob *distrenjob, char *xmloutputpath);
+
+
+/**
+   support function for distrenjob_unserialize() to help cleaning up a
    struct distrenjob when it is incompletely initialized.
    Also acts as a general-purpose struct distrenjob free()er ;-)
  */