diff --git a/src/sections.zig b/src/sections.zig
index b6b5c54..f503807 100644
--- a/src/sections.zig
+++ b/src/sections.zig
@@ -166,9 +166,8 @@ pub fn shellSections(
     corpus: *const Corpus,
 ) error{ OutOfMemory, Overflow }!ShellSections {
     var popcon = shellImport.ShellWriter.init(allocator);
-    for (corpus.usersMulti.items(.shell)) |shell| {
+    for (corpus.usersMulti.items(.shell)) |shell|
         try popcon.put(shell);
-    }
     return popcon.toOwnedSections(shellImport.max_shells);
 }
 
@@ -189,8 +188,6 @@ pub const UserGids = struct {
     }
 };
 
-const userGidsPaddingBits = 3;
-
 pub fn userGids(
     allocator: Allocator,
     corpus: *const Corpus,
@@ -202,7 +199,6 @@ pub fn userGids(
 
     // zero'th entry is empty, so groupless users can refer to it.
     try compress.appendUvarint(&blob, 0);
-    try pad.arrayList(&blob, userGidsPaddingBits);
 
     var scratch = try allocator.alloc(u32, 256);
     defer allocator.free(scratch);
@@ -222,7 +218,6 @@ pub fn userGids(
         try compress.appendUvarint(&blob, usergroups.len);
         for (scratch) |gid|
             try compress.appendUvarint(&blob, gid);
-        try pad.arrayList(&blob, userGidsPaddingBits);
     }
 
     return UserGids{
@@ -257,14 +252,12 @@ pub fn usersSection(
     errdefer blob.deinit();
     for (corpus.users) |user, i| {
         const userOffset = try math.cast(u32, blob.items.len);
-        const gidOffset = gids.idx2offset[i];
         std.debug.assert(userOffset & 7 == 0);
-        std.debug.assert(gidOffset & 7 == 0);
         idx2offset[i] = userOffset;
         try userImport.PackedUserHash.packTo(
             &blob,
             user,
-            @truncate(u29, @shrExact(gidOffset, 3)),
+            gids.idx2offset[i],
             shells.indices,
         );
     }
diff --git a/src/user.zig b/src/user.zig
index bf75710..91ec653 100644
--- a/src/user.zig
+++ b/src/user.zig
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ fn packedUser(comptime ShellIndexType: type) type {
         pub fn packTo(
             arr: *ArrayList(u8),
             user: User,
-            additional_gids_offset: usize,
+            additional_gids_offset: u64,
             idxFn: ShellIndexType,
         ) error{ InvalidRecord, OutOfMemory }!void {
             // function arguments are consts. We need to mutate the underlying