About INI ↔ JSON

Convert between INI config files and JSON. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Converters collection.

Use Cases

• DevOps engineers converting legacy Windows configs to JSON
• Python developers bridging configparser and JSON-based systems
• System administrators automating config format migrations
• Developers parsing php.ini or my.cnf into structured data

Tips

• Preserve section headers as nested JSON keys for structure
• Watch for duplicate keys — INI allows them but JSON does not
• Use this to migrate legacy app configs to modern JSON format

Fun Facts

• The INI file format dates back to the early 1980s and was popularized by Microsoft Windows 1.0 in 1985, predating both XML and JSON by decades.
• Python's configparser module, which parses INI files, was part of the Python standard library since Python 1.5 released in 1998.
• Git's configuration system (.gitconfig) uses an INI-like format, meaning every developer with Git installed interacts with INI-style files daily.

FAQ

Which INI flavor is supported?

The common subset: [section] headers, key=value pairs, # and ; comments. Windows-style and POSIX-style both work.

How are sections mapped?

Each [section] becomes a top-level JSON object. Keys within the section become its properties. `[section.subsection]` becomes nested objects with dot notation.

What about duplicate keys?

Last-wins (matches most INI parser defaults). Toggle 'collect duplicates as array' if you need to preserve multiple values per key.

Does it handle type inference?

Yes — booleans (true/false, yes/no, on/off), numbers, and null strings are converted. Quoted strings keep string type.