--- a/configure.py
+++ b/configure.py
@@ -24,22 +24,34 @@ def main(argv):
     if sandbox._help:
         return 0
 
     return config_status(config)
 
 
 def config_status(config):
     # Sanitize config data to feed config.status
+    # Ideally, all the backend and frontend code would handle the booleans, but
+    # there are so many things involved, that it's easier to keep config.status
+    # untouched for now.
+    def sanitized_bools(v):
+        if v is True:
+            return '1'
+        if v is False:
+            return ''
+        return v
+
     sanitized_config = {}
     sanitized_config['substs'] = {
-        k: v for k, v in config.iteritems()
+        k: sanitized_bools(v) for k, v in config.iteritems()
         if k not in ('DEFINES', 'non_global_defines', 'TOPSRCDIR', 'TOPOBJDIR')
     }
-    sanitized_config['defines'] = config['DEFINES']
+    sanitized_config['defines'] = {
+        k: sanitized_bools(v) for k, v in config['DEFINES'].iteritems()
+    }
     sanitized_config['non_global_defines'] = config['non_global_defines']
     sanitized_config['topsrcdir'] = config['TOPSRCDIR']
     sanitized_config['topobjdir'] = config['TOPOBJDIR']
 
     # Create config.status. Eventually, we'll want to just do the work it does
     # here, when we're able to skip configure tests/use cached results/not rely
     # on autoconf.
     print("Creating config.status", file=sys.stderr)