Important, Memory padding in kernel using 1byte

[David Chow]

Dear all

I notice using gcc compiling the kernel has the padding default set to
32-bit (4 bytes) on IA32's. This cause lots of trouble when doing file
system developments where a couple of data structures are not multiple
of 4 bytes. This cause lots of errors, I think this should be notified
to all developers when trying to deal with data structures not are
multiple of 4 bytes. Is it worth while to compile the kernel with the
padding set to 1 byte or will it cause any trouble? I know most of the
compiled programs or even modules are default to use the 32bit padding.
Please give advice.

regards,

David Chow