diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9a01081df60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# Set default behaviour, in case users don't have core.autocrlf set.
+* text=auto
+
+# Explicitly declare text files we want to always be normalized and converted 
+# to native line endings on checkout.
+*.py text
+*.pyx text
+
+# Denote all files that are truly binary and should not be modified.
+*.png binary
+*.jpg binary
+*.svg binary