By default, the linker assumes execution regions and load regions to be four-byte aligned. This option enables the linker to minimize the amount of padding that it inserts into the image.

The --no_legacyalign option instructs the linker to insert padding to force natural alignment. Natural alignment is the highest known alignment for that region.

Use --no_legacyalign to ensure strict conformance with the ELF specification.

You can also use expression evaluation in a scatter file to avoid padding.