C++ struct alignment question

Question

I have a predefined struct (actually several) where variables span across 32-bit word boundary. In Linux (and Windows using GCC) I am able to get my structs to pack to the

Answer 1

Alignment and ordering of bitfields are notoriously implementation-specific. It is much safer to declare a normal integer field and manipulate the "bitfields" within using masks and bitwise (| & ^) operators .