diff --git a/gcc/c-family/ChangeLog b/gcc/c-family/ChangeLog
index 3258816e3ed..fa9b96140fd 100644
--- a/gcc/c-family/ChangeLog
+++ b/gcc/c-family/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2016-09-15  Jason Merrill  <jason@redhat.com>
+
+	* c-common.c (check_cxx_fundamental_alignment_constraints): Check
+	DECL_EXTERNAL.
+
 2016-09-14  Jason Merrill  <jason@redhat.com>
 
 	* c-common.c (check_cxx_fundamental_alignment_constraints): Don't
diff --git a/gcc/c-family/c-common.c b/gcc/c-family/c-common.c
index 57b66712e3f..fc256867ec5 100644
--- a/gcc/c-family/c-common.c
+++ b/gcc/c-family/c-common.c
@@ -7870,7 +7870,7 @@ check_cxx_fundamental_alignment_constraints (tree node,
 
   if (VAR_P (node))
     {
-      if (TREE_STATIC (node))
+      if (TREE_STATIC (node) || DECL_EXTERNAL (node))
 	/* For file scope variables and static members, the target supports
 	   alignments that are at most MAX_OFILE_ALIGNMENT.  */
 	max_align = MAX_OFILE_ALIGNMENT;