diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..851d236df05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# Auto detect text files and perform LF normalization
+*        text=auto
+
+*.cs     text diff=csharp
+*.java   text diff=java
+*.html   text diff=html
+*.py     text diff=python
+*.pl     text diff=perl
+*.pm     text diff=perl
+*.css    text
+*.js     text
+*.sql    text
+
+*.sh     text eol=lf
+
+*.bat    text eol=crlf
+*.csproj text merge=union eol=crlf
+*.sln    text merge=union eol=crlf
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 864ece0b171..cc5a93517d1 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ Release 2.0.3-alpha - Unreleased
     HADOOP-8911. CRLF characters in source and text files.
     (Raja Aluri via suresh)
 
+    HADOOP-8912. Add .gitattributes file to prevent CRLF and LF mismatches
+    for source and text files. (Raja Aluri via suresh)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-8866. SampleQuantiles#query is O(N^2) instead of O(N). (Andrew Wang