use the GNU C may_alias attribute if available, and fallback to naive byte-by-byte loops if __GNUC__ is not defined. this patch has been written to minimize changes so that history remains reviewable; it does not attempt to bring the affected code into a more consistent or elegant form.
testing with gcc 4.6.3 on x86, -Os, the old version does a duplicate null byte check after the first loop. this is purely the compiler being stupid, but the old code was also stupid and unintuitive in how it expressed the check.