diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 73f7a2c2f..d860a74fe 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ HTS_HIDE_DYNAMIC_SYMBOLS
 
 dnl FIXME This pulls in dozens of standard header checks
 AC_FUNC_MMAP
-AC_CHECK_FUNCS([gmtime_r fsync drand48 srand48_deterministic getauxval elf_aux_info])
+AC_CHECK_FUNCS([gmtime_r fsync drand48 srand48_deterministic getauxval elf_aux_info posix_memalign])
 
 # Darwin has a dubious fdatasync() symbol, but no declaration in <unistd.h>
 AC_CHECK_DECL([fdatasync(int)], [AC_CHECK_FUNCS(fdatasync)])
diff --git a/hfile.c b/hfile.c
index 20245db43..f810f0d25 100644
--- a/hfile.c
+++ b/hfile.c
@@ -113,8 +113,13 @@ hFILE *hfile_init(size_t struct_size, const char *mode, size_t capacity)
     // FIXME For now, clamp input buffer sizes so mpileup doesn't eat memory
     if (strchr(mode, 'r') && capacity > maxcap) capacity = maxcap;
 
+#ifdef HAVE_POSIX_MEMALIGN
+    if (posix_memalign((void **)&fp->buffer, 256, capacity) < 0)
+        goto error;
+#else
     fp->buffer = (char *) malloc(capacity);
     if (fp->buffer == NULL) goto error;
+#endif
 
     fp->begin = fp->end = fp->buffer;
     fp->limit = &fp->buffer[capacity];