diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 81faf270d7..60e7818c3c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@
 .libs
 .tmp_versions
 .vagrant
-.gitattributes
 /Makefile
 /Makefile.in
 /aclocal.m4
diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index e02799a90f..fd6620a9b8 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -199,6 +199,7 @@ dist-hook-git: distfiles
 	  (cat distfiles; sed 's|^|datapath/|' datapath/distfiles) | \
 	    LC_ALL=C sort -u > all-distfiles; \
 	  (cd $(srcdir) && git ls-files) | grep -v '\.gitignore$$' | \
+	    grep -v '\.gitattributes$$' | \
 	    LC_ALL=C sort -u > all-gitfiles; \
 	  LC_ALL=C comm -1 -3 all-distfiles all-gitfiles > missing-distfiles; \
 	  if test -s missing-distfiles; then \
diff --git a/build-aux/.gitattributes b/build-aux/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fcadb2cf97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build-aux/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+* text eol=lf