g_io_channel

[The Saltydog <thesaltydog gmail com>]

I need to send a data structure over an io_channel. In the reference
manual, I found that the only available instruction to write data in a
channel is:

GIOStatus   g_io_channel_write_chars        (GIOChannel *channel,
                                             const gchar *buf,
                                             gssize count,
                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                             GError **error);

which needs a gchar* as the input data.. How can I send my data
structure with this command?