When it is convenient for you to modify the original source code, you can align at compile time with the __align(n) keyword, for example.

It might not be convenient for you to modify the source code for various reasons. For example, your build process might link the same object file into several images with different alignment requirements.

When it is not convenient for you to modify the source code, then you must use the following alignment specifiers in a scatter file:

ALIGNALL

Increases the section alignment of all the sections in an execution region, for example:

ER_DATA … ALIGNALL 8
{
    … ;selectors
}

OVERALIGN

Increases the alignment of a specific section, for example:

ER_DATA …
{
    *.o(.bar, OVERALIGN 8)
    … ;selectors
}