diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0c9181d64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+
+# webmin .gitattribues file
+# help git / github to know the encoding of webmin (lang) files
+
+# set default encoding to iso-8859-1 aka ASCII
+*        working-tree-encoding=iso8859-1 git-encoding=iso8859-1
+
+# force module.info to iso-8859-1 even it contains other encodings
+*/module.info        working-tree-encoding=iso8859-1 git-encoding=iso8859-1
+
+# set all .UTF-8 to UTF-8
+*.UTF-8      working-tree-encoding=UTF-8 git-encoding=UTF-8
+
+# set all non iso8859-1 lang files to correct encoding
+**/lang/ru_SU        working-tree-encoding=koi8-r       git-encoding=koi8-r
+**/lang/ru_RU        working-tree-encoding=windows-1251     git-encoding=windows-1251
+**/lang/zh_TW.Big5   working-tree-encoding=Big5         git-encoding=Big5
+**/lang/zh_CN        working-tree-encoding=GB2312       git-encoding=GB2312
+**/lang/hu       working-tree-encoding=iso-8859-2       git-encoding=8859-2
+**/lang/he       working-tree-encoding=iso-8859-8-I     git-encoding=8859-8-I
+**/lang/tr       working-tree-encoding=iso-8859-9       git-encoding=8859-9
+**/lang/pl       working-tree-encoding=iso-8859-2       git-encoding=8859-2
+**/lang/ja_JP.euc    working-tree-encoding=EUC-JP       git-encoding=EUC-JP
+**/lang/si       working-tree-encoding=iso-8859-2       git-encoding=8859-2
+**/lang/ko_KR.euc    working-tree-encoding=EUC-KR       git-encoding=EUC-KR
+**/lang/cz       working-tree-encoding=iso-8859-2       git-encoding=iso-8859-2
+**/lang/th       working-tree-encoding=tis-620          git-encoding=tis-620
+**/lang/no       working-tree-encoding=iso-8859-15      git-encoding=iso-8859-15
+**/lang/sk       working-tree-encoding=iso-8859-2       git-encoding=iso-8859-2
+**/lang/lt       working-tree-encoding=windows-1257     git-encoding=windows-1257
+**/lang/bg       working-tree-encoding=windows-1251     git-encoding=windows-1251
+**/lang/el       working-tree-encoding=iso-8859-7       git-encoding=iso-8859-7
+**/lang/uk_UA    working-tree-encoding=windows-1251     git-encoding=windows-1251
+**/lang/ar       working-tree-encoding=iso-8859-6-I     git-encoding=iso-8859-6-I
+**/lang/fa       working-tree-encoding=UTF-8            git-encoding=UTF-8