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Even size of int matters. In C/C++ size of interger different based on WORD size. For example sizeof(int) is 4 on a 32-bit OS while sizeof(int) is 8 on a 64-bit OS (and sizeof(int) is 2 on old 16-bit OS).

But, isn't endianness an attribute of the hardware, and not the OS?

I dont't think endian ness has anything to do with this.
This should be file system related interface. We need to map the data format from one file system ti another OS file system. So suppose for one OS, inode table structure is different from other than this need to be taken care...

SJ

Different OS support different kind of encodings. For eg: if you save a file on Windows and open in some editor in MAC,you may find some corrupt charcters in the file.

Big-endian and little-endian are terms that describe the order in which a sequence of bytes are stored in computer memory. Big-endian is an order in which the "big end" (most significant value in the sequence) is stored first (at the lowest storage address). Little-endian is an order in which the "little end" (least significant value in the sequence) is stored first. For example, in a big-endian computer, the two bytes required for the hexadecimal number 4F52 would be stored as 4F52 in storage (if 4F is stored at storage address 1000, for example, 52 will be at address 1001). In a little-endian system, it would be stored as 524F (52 at address 1000, 4F at 1001).

using lscpu command in linux we can get the about our system bytes order.

Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
CPU(s): 4
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-3
Thread(s) per core: 2
Core(s) per socket: 2
Socket(s): 1
NUMA node(s): 1
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 58
Stepping: 9
CPU MHz: 1200.000
BogoMIPS: 4789.59
Virtualization: VT-x
L1d cache: 32K
L1i cache: 32K
L2 cache: 256K
L3 cache: 3072K
NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-3