TIDY -- Error when attempting to use configuration file

Hello, Tidy wizards:

Using "HTML Tidy for Windows released on 2 April 2007"

I am trying load a configuration file via either:
   HTML_TIDY=/path/to/file; export HTML_TIDY
   or "tidy -c /path/to/file"

In either case, I receive:  Config: Can't open "/home/Dennis/tidy.ini"

Notice the following run:
   > echo $HTML_TIDY
   /home/Dennis/tidy.ini

   > tidy -version
   Config: Can't open "/home/Dennis/tidy.ini"
   
   Loading config file "/home/Dennis/tidy.ini" failed, err = -1
   HTML Tidy for Windows released on 2 April 2007

   > cat $HTML_TIDY
   clean: yes
   doctype: auto
   drop-proprietary-attributes: yes
   join-classes: yes
   join-styles: yes
   numeric-entities: no
   preserve-entities: no
   quote-nbsp: yes
   word-2000: yes
   tidy-mark: no

   >

Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any advice