diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index dd9ee1e..81a1fa3 100755
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ See also NOTES.txt
 
 # Testing
 
+  Run "make check" to invoke the unit test framework of Automake.
+
   * To run basic functionality tests that we use for continuous integration, see ./testing/
   * There are docker scripts provided to test various distributions at once.
   * See ./testing/docker/
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a80908e..3a34720 100755
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ AX_PROG_CC_MPI(,,[
     AC_MSG_FAILURE([MPI compiler requested, but couldn't use MPI.])
 ])
 
+AC_PROG_RANLIB
 # No reason not to require modern C at this point
 AC_PROG_CC_C99
 
@@ -244,5 +245,6 @@ AM_CONDITIONAL([USE_CAPS], [test x$enable_caps = xyes])
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
                  src/Makefile
                  contrib/Makefile
+                 src/test/Makefile
                  doc/Makefile])
 AC_OUTPUT
diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index 9c27d89..0f1c913 100755
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+SUBDIRS = . test
+
 bin_PROGRAMS = ior mdtest
 if USE_CAPS
 bin_PROGRAMS += IOR MDTEST
@@ -5,6 +7,9 @@ endif
 
 noinst_HEADERS = ior.h utilities.h parse_options.h aiori.h iordef.h ior-internal.h option.h
 
+lib_LIBRARIES = libaiori.a
+libaiori_a_SOURCES = ior.c mdtest.c utilities.c parse_options.c ior-output.c option.c
+
 extraSOURCES = aiori.c aiori-DUMMY.c
 extraLDADD =
 extraLDFLAGS =
@@ -88,3 +93,5 @@ IOT_CPPFLAGS = $(ior_CPPFLAGS)
 MDTEST_SOURCES  = $(mdtest_SOURCES)
 MDTEST_LDADD    = $(mdtest_LDADD)
 MDTEST_CPPFLAGS = $(mdtest_CPPFLAGS)
+
+libaiori_a_SOURCES += $(extraSOURCES)
diff --git a/src/aiori-S3.c b/src/aiori-S3.c
index 955e0f0..4836dd1 100755
--- a/src/aiori-S3.c
+++ b/src/aiori-S3.c
@@ -110,6 +110,39 @@
 #include "aws4c_extra.h"        // utilities, e.g. for parsing XML in responses
 
 
+
+
+/* buffer is used to generate URLs, err_msgs, etc */
+#define            BUFF_SIZE  1024
+static char        buff[BUFF_SIZE];
+
+const int          ETAG_SIZE = 32;
+
+CURLcode           rc;
+
+/* Any objects we create or delete will be under this bucket */
+const char* bucket_name = "ior";
+
+/* TODO: The following stuff goes into options! */
+/* REST/S3 variables */
+//    CURL*       curl;             /* for libcurl "easy" fns (now managed by aws4c) */
+#   define      IOR_CURL_INIT        0x01 /* curl top-level inits were perfomed once? */
+#   define      IOR_CURL_NOCONTINUE  0x02
+#   define      IOR_CURL_S3_EMC_EXT  0x04 /* allow EMC extensions to S3? */
+
+#ifdef USE_S3_AIORI
+#  include <curl/curl.h>
+#  include "aws4c.h"
+#else
+   typedef void     CURL;       /* unused, but needs a type */
+   typedef void     IOBuf;      /* unused, but needs a type */
+#endif
+
+    IOBuf*      io_buf;              /* aws4c places parsed header values here */
+    IOBuf*      etags;               /* accumulate ETags for N:1 parts */
+
+///////////////////////////////////////////////
+
 /**************************** P R O T O T Y P E S *****************************/
 static void*        S3_Create(char*, IOR_param_t*);
 static void*        S3_Open(char*, IOR_param_t*);
@@ -180,17 +213,23 @@ ior_aiori_t s3_emc_aiori = {
 	.finalize = S3_finalize
 };
 
+static int is_initialized = FALSE;
+
 static void S3_init(){
-    /* This is supposed to be done before *any* threads are created.
-     * Could MPI_Init() create threads (or call multi-threaded
-     * libraries)?  We'll assume so. */
-    AWS4C_CHECK( aws_init() );
+	if (is_initialized) return;
+	is_initialized = TRUE;
+  /* This is supposed to be done before *any* threads are created.
+   * Could MPI_Init() create threads (or call multi-threaded
+   * libraries)?  We'll assume so. */
+  AWS4C_CHECK( aws_init() );
 }
 
 static void S3_finalize(){
-    /* done once per program, after exiting all threads.
-     * NOTE: This fn doesn't return a value that can be checked for success. */
-    aws_cleanup();
+	if (! is_initialized) return;
+	is_initialized = FALSE;
+  /* done once per program, after exiting all threads.
+ 	* NOTE: This fn doesn't return a value that can be checked for success. */
+  aws_cleanup();
 }
 
 /* modelled on similar macros in iordef.h */
@@ -213,20 +252,6 @@ static void S3_finalize(){
 	} while (0)
 
 
-
-/* buffer is used to generate URLs, err_msgs, etc */
-#define            BUFF_SIZE  1024
-static char        buff[BUFF_SIZE];
-
-const int          ETAG_SIZE = 32;
-
-CURLcode           rc;
-
-/* Any objects we create or delete will be under this bucket */
-const char* bucket_name = "ior";
-//const char* bucket_name = "brettk";
-
-
 /***************************** F U N C T I O N S ******************************/
 
 
@@ -251,9 +276,8 @@ const char* bucket_name = "ior";
  * ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
 
-static
-void
-s3_connect( IOR_param_t* param ) {
+
+static void s3_connect( IOR_param_t* param ) {
 	if (param->verbose >= VERBOSE_2) {
 		printf("-> s3_connect\n"); /* DEBUGGING */
 	}
diff --git a/src/ior.c b/src/ior.c
index 4307558..e493d09 100755
--- a/src/ior.c
+++ b/src/ior.c
@@ -210,11 +210,7 @@ void init_IOR_Param_t(IOR_param_t * p)
         p->hdfs_replicas = 0;   /* invokes the default */
         p->hdfs_block_size = 0;
 
-        // p->curl       = NULL;
         p->URI = NULL;
-        p->curl_flags = 0;
-        p->io_buf = NULL;
-        p->etags = NULL;
         p->part_number = 0;
 
         p->beegfs_numTargets = -1;
@@ -223,26 +219,6 @@ void init_IOR_Param_t(IOR_param_t * p)
         p->mmap_ptr = NULL;
 }
 
-/**
- * Bind the global "backend" pointer to the requested backend AIORI's
- * function table.
- */
-static void AioriBind(char* api, IOR_param_t* param)
-{
-        backend = aiori_select (api);
-        if (NULL != backend) {
-                if (! strncmp(api, "S3", 2)) {
-                        if (! strcasecmp(api, "S3_EMC")) {
-                                param->curl_flags |= IOR_CURL_S3_EMC_EXT;
-                        } else {
-                                param->curl_flags &= ~(IOR_CURL_S3_EMC_EXT);
-                        }
-                }
-        } else {
-                ERR("unrecognized IO API");
-        }
-}
-
 static void
 DisplayOutliers(int numTasks,
                 double timerVal,
@@ -1235,7 +1211,7 @@ static void TestIoSys(IOR_test_t *test)
         }
 
         /* bind I/O calls to specific API */
-        AioriBind(params->api, params);
+        backend = aiori_select(params->api);
 
         /* show test setup */
         if (rank == 0 && verbose >= VERBOSE_0)
diff --git a/src/ior.h b/src/ior.h
index b6655b3..24a6d53 100755
--- a/src/ior.h
+++ b/src/ior.h
@@ -29,14 +29,6 @@
    typedef void*    hdfsFS;      /* unused, but needs a type */
 #endif
 
-#ifdef USE_S3_AIORI
-#  include <curl/curl.h>
-#  include "aws4c.h"
-#else
-   typedef void     CURL;       /* unused, but needs a type */
-   typedef void     IOBuf;      /* unused, but needs a type */
-#endif
-
 #ifdef USE_RADOS_AIORI
 #  include <rados/librados.h>
 #else
@@ -180,15 +172,7 @@ typedef struct
     int         hdfs_replicas;       /* n block replicas.  (0 gets default) */
     int         hdfs_block_size;     /* internal blk-size. (0 gets default) */
 
-    /* REST/S3 variables */
-    //    CURL*       curl;             /* for libcurl "easy" fns (now managed by aws4c) */
-#   define      IOR_CURL_INIT        0x01 /* curl top-level inits were perfomed once? */
-#   define      IOR_CURL_NOCONTINUE  0x02
-#   define      IOR_CURL_S3_EMC_EXT  0x04 /* allow EMC extensions to S3? */
-    char        curl_flags;
     char*       URI;                 /* "path" to target object */
-    IOBuf*      io_buf;              /* aws4c places parsed header values here */
-    IOBuf*      etags;               /* accumulate ETags for N:1 parts */
     size_t      part_number;         /* multi-part upload increment (PER-RANK!) */
     char*       UploadId; /* key for multi-part-uploads */
 
diff --git a/src/option.c b/src/option.c
index 13e1908..831afb2 100644
--- a/src/option.c
+++ b/src/option.c
@@ -267,9 +267,11 @@ int option_parse(int argc, char ** argv, option_help * args, int * printhelp){
     char * txt = argv[i];
     int foundOption = 0;
     char * arg = strstr(txt, "=");
+    int replaced_equal = 0;
     if(arg != NULL){
       arg[0] = 0;
       arg++;
+      replaced_equal = 1;
     }
     if(strcmp(txt, "--") == 0){
       // we found plugin options
@@ -346,7 +348,7 @@ int option_parse(int argc, char ** argv, option_help * args, int * printhelp){
             }
           }
         }
-        if(arg != NULL){
+        if(replaced_equal){
           arg[-1] = '=';
         }
 
diff --git a/src/test/Makefile.am b/src/test/Makefile.am
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..751423f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/Makefile.am
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+TESTS = testlib
+bin_PROGRAMS = testlib
+
+testlib_SOURCES = lib.c
+testlib_LDFLAGS =
+testlib_LDADD = ../libaiori.a
+testlib_CPPFLAGS =
diff --git a/src/test/lib.c b/src/test/lib.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..64ebf31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/lib.c
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#include "../ior.h"
+#include "../mdtest.h"
+
+int main(int argc, char ** argv){
+  int rank;
+  MPI_Init(& argc, & argv);
+  MPI_Comm_rank(MPI_COMM_WORLD, & rank);
+
+  if (rank == 0){
+    char * param[] = {"./ior", "-a", "DUMMY"};
+    IOR_test_t * res = ior_run(3, param, MPI_COMM_SELF, stdout);
+  }
+  if (rank == 0){
+    char * param[] = {"./mdtest", "-a", "DUMMY"};
+    mdtest_results_t * res = mdtest_run(3, param, MPI_COMM_SELF, stdout);
+  }
+  MPI_Finalize();
+
+  return 0;
+}