Path-specific setting file used by Git, a version control system used for storing source code; contains attributes that dictate what settings Git applies to certain subdirectories or subsets of files; located in the root directory of the project; similar to the .GITIGNORE file.

The GITATTRIBUTES file enables you to perform a variety of functions such as commanding Git how it should diff (show changes between an index and a tree, changes between two trees, etc.) non-text files or having Git filter content before checking it into or out of Git. A helpful attribute that will tell Git to treat a specific file extension as binary data: *.extension -crlf -diff or *.extension binary Here is an example of a GITATTRIBUTES file: # Auto detect text files and perform LF normalization * text=auto # Custom for Visual Studio *.cs diff=csharp *.sln merge=union *.csproj merge=union *.vbproj merge=union *.fsproj merge=union *.dbproj merge=union # Standard to msysgit *.docx diff=astextplain *.DOCX diff=astextplain *.dot diff=astextplain *.DOT diff=astextplain *.pdf diff=astextplain *.PDF diff=astextplain *.rtf diff=astextplain *.RTF diff=astextplain