diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6b9c715d21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+* whitespace=!indent,trail,space
+*.[ch] whitespace
diff --git a/Documentation/.gitattributes b/Documentation/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ddb030137d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+*.txt whitespace
diff --git a/t/.gitattributes b/t/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..562b12e16e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+* -whitespace