diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 20c31c92d..98eb266ad 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 	  incoming connection
 	* added more detailed instrumentation of the disk I/O thread
 
+	* fixed strict aliasing warning on gcc
 	* fixed inconsistency when creating torrents with symlinks
 	* properly detect windows version to initialize half-open connection limit
 	* fixed bug in url encoder where $ would not be encoded
diff --git a/include/libtorrent/entry.hpp b/include/libtorrent/entry.hpp
index 21b2bae5b..a46781d63 100644
--- a/include/libtorrent/entry.hpp
+++ b/include/libtorrent/entry.hpp
@@ -169,24 +169,19 @@ namespace libtorrent
 		// workaround for msvc-bug.
 		// assumes sizeof(map<string, char>) == sizeof(map<string, entry>)
 		// and sizeof(list<char>) == sizeof(list<entry>)
-		union
-		{
-			char data[
-				max4<sizeof(std::list<char>)
-				, sizeof(std::map<std::string, char>)
-				, sizeof(string_type)
-				, sizeof(integer_type)>::value];
-			integer_type dummy_aligner;
-		};
+		integer_type data[
+			(max4<sizeof(std::list<char>)
+			, sizeof(std::map<std::string, char>)
+			, sizeof(string_type)
+			, sizeof(integer_type)>::value + sizeof(integer_type) - 1)
+				/ sizeof(integer_type)];
 #else
-		union
-		{
-			char data[max4<sizeof(list_type)
-				, sizeof(dictionary_type)
-				, sizeof(string_type)
-				, sizeof(integer_type)>::value];
-			integer_type dummy_aligner;
-		};
+		integer_type data[
+			(max4<sizeof(list_type)
+			, sizeof(dictionary_type)
+			, sizeof(string_type)
+			, sizeof(integer_type)>::value + sizeof(integer_type) - 1)
+				/ sizeof(integer_type)];
 #endif
 
 #ifdef TORRENT_DEBUG