diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..be5d27a7a5e6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# Normalize EOLs by default, to avoid falling back on committers'
+# "core.autocrlf" settings.
+* text=auto
+
+# Don't normalize EOLs of files derived from an upstream.
+*.diff -text
+*.patch -text
+net/nagios-plugins/files/check_nt.c -text