Interpolate byte array from 64 bit linux app

[tradevol]

Hi,

I have a client app which directly read the byte stream from the
socket, which is sent from linux 64 bit server app.
One problem I have is that I realize that it seems like the minimum
size for the data sent from linux is 4 bytes. even though the server
only sent one char. Any short type data is 8 bytes also (instead of 2
bytes as expected in 32bit system).

One of the reason to use binary array is to reduce the message
traffic. However, it seems unachievable from a 64 bit system.

I sent a lot of data and hope to reduce the size as much as possible,
but still using the 64 bit server. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Chris