c - sizeof union larger than expected. How does type alignment take place here?

#include <stdio.h>

union u1 {
    struct {
        int *i;
    } s1;
    struct {
        int i, j;
    } s2;
};

union u2 {
    struct {
        int *i, j;
    } s1;
    struct {
        int i, j;
    } s2;
};

int main(void) {
    printf("        size of int: %zu\n", sizeof(int));
    printf("size of int pointer: %zu\n", sizeof(int *));
    printf("   size of union u1: %zu\n", sizeof(union u1));
    printf("   size of union u2: %zu\n", sizeof(union u2));
    return 0;
}

Results in:

$ gcc -O -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -std=c99 -o test test.c
$ ./test
        size of int: 4
size of int pointer: 8
   size of union u1: 8
   size of union u2: 16

Why does adding an integer of 4 bytes to nested struct s1 of union u2 increase the size of the union as a whole by 8 bytes?

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Best Answer-推荐答案

The struct u2.s2 is 16 bytes because of alignment constraints. The compiler is guaranteeing that if you make an array of such structs, each pointer will be aligned on an 8-byte boundary. The field *i takes 8 bytes, then j takes 4 bytes, and the compiler inserts 4 bytes of padding. Because the struct is 16 bytes, the union containing it is also 16 bytes.