diff --git a/include/boost/config/platform/aix.hpp b/include/boost/config/platform/aix.hpp
index 975d4759..670bf0bc 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/platform/aix.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/platform/aix.hpp
@@ -17,4 +17,8 @@
 #define BOOST_HAS_PTHREAD_DELAY_NP
 #define BOOST_HAS_PTHREAD_YIELD
 
+// boilerplate code:
+#include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
+
+
 
diff --git a/include/boost/config/platform/beos.hpp b/include/boost/config/platform/beos.hpp
index 13ca5279..b2c0de5f 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/platform/beos.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/platform/beos.hpp
@@ -19,5 +19,7 @@
 #  define BOOST_HAS_THREADS
 #endif
 
+// boilerplate code:
+#include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
  
 
diff --git a/include/boost/config/platform/bsd.hpp b/include/boost/config/platform/bsd.hpp
index ee861bee..037df772 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/platform/bsd.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/platform/bsd.hpp
@@ -37,3 +37,7 @@
 // The BSD <ctype.h> has macros only, no functions:
 //
 #define BOOST_NO_CTYPE_FUNCTIONS
+
+// boilerplate code:
+#include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
+
diff --git a/include/boost/config/platform/cygwin.hpp b/include/boost/config/platform/cygwin.hpp
index 21b25dfa..65fc556e 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/platform/cygwin.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/platform/cygwin.hpp
@@ -26,5 +26,7 @@
 #  define BOOST_HAS_FTIME
 #endif
 
+// boilerplate code:
+#include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
  
 
diff --git a/include/boost/config/platform/hpux.hpp b/include/boost/config/platform/hpux.hpp
index 1cca2a17..16e5def6 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/platform/hpux.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/platform/hpux.hpp
@@ -17,3 +17,7 @@
 
 #define BOOST_NO_SWPRINTF 
 #define BOOST_NO_CWCTYPE
+
+// boilerplate code:
+#include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
+
diff --git a/include/boost/config/platform/irix.hpp b/include/boost/config/platform/irix.hpp
index b8d2362c..25ae4a53 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/platform/irix.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/platform/irix.hpp
@@ -11,3 +11,6 @@
 
 #define BOOST_NO_SWPRINTF 
 
+// boilerplate code:
+#include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
+
diff --git a/include/boost/config/platform/linux.hpp b/include/boost/config/platform/linux.hpp
index 218cefbc..dac085e3 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/platform/linux.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/platform/linux.hpp
@@ -48,6 +48,9 @@
 #  define BOOST_NO_SWPRINTF
 #endif
 
+// boilerplate code:
+#include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
+
 #ifndef __GNUC__
 //
 // if the compiler is not gcc we still need to be able to parse
diff --git a/include/boost/config/platform/macos.hpp b/include/boost/config/platform/macos.hpp
index b749e137..c19a6e6e 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/platform/macos.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/platform/macos.hpp
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
 #  ifndef BOOST_HAS_UNISTD_H
 #    define BOOST_HAS_UNISTD_H
 #  endif
+// boilerplate code:
+#  include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
 #  ifndef BOOST_HAS_STDINT_H
 #     define BOOST_HAS_STDINT_H
 #  endif
diff --git a/include/boost/config/platform/solaris.hpp b/include/boost/config/platform/solaris.hpp
index 55e223d3..b2ab1b0c 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/platform/solaris.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/platform/solaris.hpp
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
 
 #define BOOST_HAS_GETTIMEOFDAY
 
+// boilerplate code:
+#include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
 
 
 
diff --git a/include/boost/config/select_platform_config.hpp b/include/boost/config/select_platform_config.hpp
index 5443f940..662d322c 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/select_platform_config.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/select_platform_config.hpp
@@ -52,10 +52,28 @@
 // IBM
 #  define BOOST_PLATFORM_CONFIG "boost/config/platform/aix.hpp"
 
-#elif defined (BOOST_ASSERT_CONFIG)
-// this must come last - generate an error if we don't
-// recognise the platform:
-#  error "Unknown platform - please configure and report the results to boost.org"
+#else
+
+#  if defined(unix) \
+      || defined(__unix) \
+      || defined(_XOPEN_SOURCE) \
+      || defined(_POSIX_SOURCE)
+
+   // generic unix platform:
+
+#  ifndef BOOST_HAS_UNISTD_H
+#     define BOOST_HAS_UNISTD_H
+#  endif
+
+#  include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
+
+#  endif
+
+#  if defined (BOOST_ASSERT_CONFIG)
+      // this must come last - generate an error if we don't
+      // recognise the platform:
+#     error "Unknown platform - please configure and report the results to boost.org"
+#  endif
 
 #endif
 
diff --git a/include/boost/config/stdlib/msl.hpp b/include/boost/config/stdlib/msl.hpp
index 824b9dd4..8434d2be 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/stdlib/msl.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/stdlib/msl.hpp
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@
 #if defined(__MSL__) && (__MSL__ >= 0x5000)
 #  define BOOST_HAS_STDINT_H
 #  define BOOST_HAS_UNISTD_H
+   // boilerplate code:
+#  include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
 #endif
 
 
diff --git a/include/boost/config/suffix.hpp b/include/boost/config/suffix.hpp
index e036b1e4..56a15120 100644
--- a/include/boost/config/suffix.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/config/suffix.hpp
@@ -22,9 +22,12 @@
 # endif
 
 //
-// look for long long by looking for the appropriate macros in <climits>
+// look for long long by looking for the appropriate macros in <limits.h>.
+// Note that we use limits.h rather than climits for maximal portability,
+// remember that since these just declare a bunch of macros, there should be
+// no namespace issues from this.
 //
-#include <climits>
+#include <limits.h>
 # if !defined(BOOST_MSVC) && !defined(__BORLANDC__) \
    && (defined(ULLONG_MAX) || defined(ULONG_LONG_MAX) || defined(ULONGLONG_MAX))
 #  define BOOST_HAS_LONG_LONG
@@ -119,26 +122,6 @@
 #     define BOOST_NO_SWPRINTF
 #  endif
 
-//
-// If the platform claims to be Unix, then it had better behave like Unix!
-//
-#  if defined(unix) \
-      || defined(__unix) \
-      || defined(_XOPEN_SOURCE) \
-      || defined(_POSIX_SOURCE)
-
-#     ifndef BOOST_HAS_UNISTD_H
-#        define BOOST_HAS_UNISTD_H
-#     endif
-#  endif
-
-//
-// If we have a <unistd.h> then some options can be deduced from it:
-//
-#  ifdef BOOST_HAS_UNISTD_H
-#     include <boost/config/posix_features.hpp>
-#  endif
-
 //
 // Turn on threading support if the compiler thinks that it's in
 // multithreaded mode.  We put this here because there are only a