+/* --- @align_step@ --- *
+ *
+ * Arguments: @buf *b@ = pointer to a buffer block
+ * @size_t m, a@ = alignment parameters
+ *
+ * Returns: The number of bytes to skip or fill.
+ */
+
+static size_t align_step(buf *b, size_t m, size_t a)
+{
+ if (m < 2) return (0);
+ else if (!(m&(m - 1))) return ((a - BLEN(b))&(m - 1));
+ else return ((a + m - BLEN(b)%m)%m);
+}
+
+/* --- @{,d}buf_alignskip@ --- *
+ *
+ * Arguments: @buf *b@ or @dbuf *db@ = pointer to a buffer block
+ * @size_t m, a@ = alignment multiple and offset
+ *
+ * Returns: Zero if it worked, nonzero if there wasn't enough space.
+ *
+ * Use: Advance the buffer position as little as possible such that
+ * it is @a@ greater than a multiple of @m@. This doesn't write
+ * anything to the buffer, so it's probably not suitable for
+ * output: use @buf_alignfill@ instead.
+ */
+
+int buf_alignskip(buf *b, size_t m, size_t a)
+{
+ if (!buf_get(b, align_step(b, m, a))) return (-1);
+ else return (0);
+}
+int (dbuf_alignskip)(dbuf *db, size_t m, size_t a)
+ { return (dbuf_alignskip(db, m, a)); }
+
+/* --- @{,d}buf_alignfill@ --- *
+ *
+ * Arguments: @buf *b@ or @dbuf *db@ = pointer to a buffer block
+ * @int ch@ = fill character
+ * @size_t m, a@ = alignment multiple and offset
+ *
+ * Returns: Zero if it worked, nonzero if there wasn't enough space.
+ *
+ * Use: Fill the buffer with as few copies of @ch@ as possible, as if
+ * by @memset@, to advance the buffer position to a value @a@
+ * greater than a multiple of @m@.
+ */
+
+int buf_alignfill(buf *b, int ch, size_t m, size_t a)
+ { return (buf_fill(b, ch, align_step(b, m, a))); }
+int (dbuf_alignfill)(dbuf *db, int ch, size_t m, size_t a)
+ { return (dbuf_alignfill(db, ch, m, a)); }
+