diff --git a/docs/src/config/ini-config.adoc b/docs/src/config/ini-config.adoc
index 9f932eb01cb..6ba256961cb 100644
--- a/docs/src/config/ini-config.adoc
+++ b/docs/src/config/ini-config.adoc
@@ -59,8 +59,8 @@ Related parts of an INI file are separated into sections.
 A section name is enclosed in brackets like this: `[THIS_SECTION]`.
 The order of sections is unimportant.
 Sections begin at the section name and end at the next section name.
-Section identifiers are case senstive and can only contain letters A-Z, a-z, digits 0-9 and underscore (_).
-Additionally, section identifiers cannot start with a digit.
+Section identifiers are case senstive and can only contain letters A-Z, a-z, digits 0-9, underscore (_) and dash (-).
+Additionally, section identifiers cannot start with a digit or a dash.
 
 The following sections are used by LinuxCNC:
 
@@ -83,8 +83,8 @@ The following sections are used by LinuxCNC:
 === Variables(((INI File,Components,Variables)))
 
 A variable line is made up of a variable name, an equals sign (`=`), and a value.
-A variable identifier is case sensitive and may only consist of letters A-Z, a-z, digits 0-9 and underscore (_).
-Additionally, variable identifiers cannot start with a digit.
+A variable identifier is case sensitive and may only consist of letters A-Z, a-z, digits 0-9, underscore (_) and dash (-).
+Additionally, variable identifiers cannot start with a digit or a dash.
 White space at the beginning of the line and after the variable identifier, up to the equals sign, is ignored.
 
 .Variable Example
diff --git a/docs/src/man/man1/inivalue.1.adoc b/docs/src/man/man1/inivalue.1.adoc
index 56e4cc25836..82664bb93bb 100644
--- a/docs/src/man/man1/inivalue.1.adoc
+++ b/docs/src/man/man1/inivalue.1.adoc
@@ -100,7 +100,8 @@ The INI-file format uses the common standard for INI-files with a few additions
 and exceptions.
 
 Section names and variable names may only consist of letters a-z, A-Z, digits
-0-9 and underscore (_). The first character in the name cannot be a digit.
+0-9, underscore (_) and dash (-). The first character in the name cannot be a
+digit or a dash.
 
 Comments are specified with the # or ; character and everything following
 either # or ; is ignored until the end of the line. Embedding a # or ; in a
diff --git a/src/emc/ini/inifile.cc b/src/emc/ini/inifile.cc
index 2720ce2d70d..7952dd21331 100644
--- a/src/emc/ini/inifile.cc
+++ b/src/emc/ini/inifile.cc
@@ -48,8 +48,10 @@ static inline void print_msg(const std::string &str)
 	//rcs_print((str + "\n").c_str());
 }
 
-// Identifier characters
-static const char STR_ID[] = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_0123456789";
+// Identifier characters. The dash is included for compatibility with the
+// historic ini parser, which accepted it (e.g. xhc-hb04 pendant layout tags
+// like "start-pause" and its [XHC-HB04] cfg section).
+static const char STR_ID[] = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_0123456789-";
 
 namespace linuxcnc {
 //
@@ -576,8 +578,8 @@ bool IniFileContent::parseLine(const std::string &line, const std::string &path,
 							path, linenr, sect));
 			return false;
 		}
-		if(std::isdigit(sect[0] & 0xff)) {
-			print_msg(fmt::format("{}:{}: error: Invalid section '{}'. Cannot start with a digit", path, linenr, sect));
+		if(std::isdigit(sect[0] & 0xff) || '-' == sect[0]) {
+			print_msg(fmt::format("{}:{}: error: Invalid section '{}'. Cannot start with a digit or '-'", path, linenr, sect));
 			return false;
 		}
 
@@ -629,8 +631,8 @@ bool IniFileContent::parseLine(const std::string &line, const std::string &path,
 						path, linenr, tag));
 		return false;
 	}
-	if(std::isdigit(tag[0] & 0xff)) {
-		print_msg(fmt::format("{}:{}: error: Invalid tag '{}'. Tag identifiers cannot start with a digit", path, linenr, tag));
+	if(std::isdigit(tag[0] & 0xff) || '-' == tag[0]) {
+		print_msg(fmt::format("{}:{}: error: Invalid tag '{}'. Tag identifiers cannot start with a digit or '-'", path, linenr, tag));
 		return false;
 	}
 
diff --git a/tests/inifile/hyphen_identifiers/expected b/tests/inifile/hyphen_identifiers/expected
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f250ef86645
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/inifile/hyphen_identifiers/expected
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+std
+std_start_pause
+mdi00
diff --git a/tests/inifile/hyphen_identifiers/hyphenated.ini b/tests/inifile/hyphen_identifiers/hyphenated.ini
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ea6af5c3c05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/inifile/hyphen_identifiers/hyphenated.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# Identifiers containing a dash were accepted by the historic ini parser
+# and must keep working (xhc-hb04 pendant layout files use them).
+[XHC-HB04]
+layout = std
+
+[buttons]
+start-pause = std_start_pause
+goto-zero-x = mdi00
diff --git a/tests/inifile/hyphen_identifiers/test.sh b/tests/inifile/hyphen_identifiers/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..65fa7111601
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/inifile/hyphen_identifiers/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+inivar -ini hyphenated.ini -sec XHC-HB04 -var layout
+inivar -ini hyphenated.ini -sec buttons -var start-pause
+inivar -ini hyphenated.ini -sec buttons -var goto-zero-x
diff --git a/tests/inifile/inivalue/expected b/tests/inifile/inivalue/expected
index 257b8d9c6be..c5bee7ce566 100644
--- a/tests/inifile/inivalue/expected
+++ b/tests/inifile/inivalue/expected
@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ xtest.ini:1: error: Invalid section. Missing ']'
 xtest.ini:1: error: Invalid section. No content between '[' and ']'
 xtest.ini:1: error: Invalid section. No content between '[' and ']'
 --- test invalid section, invalid identifier
-xtest.ini:1: error: Invalid section '0SECTION'. Cannot start with a digit
+xtest.ini:1: error: Invalid section '0SECTION'. Cannot start with a digit or '-'
+xtest.ini:1: error: Invalid section '-SECTION'. Cannot start with a digit or '-'
 xtest.ini:1: error: Invalid section 'xæøåz'. Identifier contains invalid character(s)
 --- test duplicate section merge warning
 xtest.ini:2: warning: Section 'SECTION' already exists. Merging...
@@ -30,7 +31,8 @@ xtest.ini:2: error: Invalid tag. Missing identifier before '='
 --- test invalid variable name missing '='
 xtest.ini:2: error: Invalid tag 'VAR x'. Expected '=' after tag identifier
 --- test invalid variable name identifier
-xtest.ini:2: error: Invalid tag '0VAR'. Tag identifiers cannot start with a digit
+xtest.ini:2: error: Invalid tag '0VAR'. Tag identifiers cannot start with a digit or '-'
+xtest.ini:2: error: Invalid tag '-VAR'. Tag identifiers cannot start with a digit or '-'
 xtest.ini:2: error: Invalid tag name 'VÅR'. Identifier contains invalid character(s)
 xtest.ini:2: error: Invalid tag name 'VAR x'. Identifier contains invalid character(s)
 --- test invalid variable outside section
diff --git a/tests/inifile/inivalue/test.sh b/tests/inifile/inivalue/test.sh
index f510cc98e11..fd7e7a0addf 100755
--- a/tests/inifile/inivalue/test.sh
+++ b/tests/inifile/inivalue/test.sh
@@ -53,6 +53,8 @@ tst --var=VAR && t "Invalid section"
 r "--- test invalid section, invalid identifier"
 echo "[0SECTION]" > xtest.ini
 tst --var=VAR && t "Invalid section"
+echo "[-SECTION]" > xtest.ini
+tst --var=VAR && t "Invalid section"
 echo "[xæøåz]" > xtest.ini
 tst --var=VAR && t "Invalid section"
 
@@ -86,6 +88,9 @@ r "--- test invalid variable name identifier"
 ( echo "[SECTION]"
   echo "0VAR=val" ) > xtest.ini
 tst --var=0VAR && t "Invalid variable name"
+( echo "[SECTION]"
+  echo "-VAR=val" ) > xtest.ini
+tst --var=-VAR && t "Invalid variable name"
 ( echo "[SECTION]"
   echo "VÅR=val" ) > xtest.ini
 tst --var=VAR && t "Invalid variable name"