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#### 9.42.2 Enforcing aligned data

SPARC GAS normally permits data to be misaligned. For example, it permits the `.long` pseudo-op to be used on a byte boundary. However, the native SunOS assemblers issue an error when they see misaligned data.

You can use the `--enforce-aligned-data` option to make SPARC GAS also issue an error about misaligned data, just as the SunOS assemblers do.

The `--enforce-aligned-data` option is not the default because gcc issues misaligned data pseudo-ops when it initializes certain packed data structures (structures defined using the `packed` attribute). You may have to assemble with GAS in order to initialize packed data structures in your own code.