catch-all, end-all, One to Rule Them All, comprehensive gitattributes file; or, notes of my travels through other people's code.

.gitattributes

# Use this line at your own risk
# * text=auto

# Editor save files
# (these should be in your gitignore)
*~ text
.*.sw[a-z] text
\#* text
.#* text

# Text/Generic
*.txt text
*.rst text
*.md text
*.markdown text
COPYING text
COPYRIGHT text
LICENSE text
NOTICE text
README text
CHANGELIST text
CODE_OF_CONDUCT text
CONTRIBUTORS text
NOTES text
TODO text

# patch/diff
*.patch text
*.diff text
*.orig text

# Vagrant
Vagrantfile text

# Docker
Dockerfile text

# Config
*.conf text
*.cfg text
*.cnf text
*.dat text
*.csv text
*.tsv text

# Data
*.json text
*.yaml text
*.yml text
*.xml text

# Archives
*.xz -text
*.gz -text
*.z -text
*.zip -text
*.bzip -text
*.bz -text
*.bzip2 -text
*.bz2 -text
*.gzip -text
*.ar -text
*.lzma -text
*.lzma2 -text
*.tar -text

# Images
*.png -text
*.jpg -text
*.JPEG -text
*.jpeg -text
*.ico -text
*.svg -text
*.bmp -text
*.tiff -text
*.gif -text
*.gifv -text

# Documents
*.pdf -text
*.docx -text
*.doc -text
*.xlsx -text
*.xls -text

# LaTeX
*.tex text
*.sty text

# Web
*.js text
*.css text
*.html text
*.htm text

# PHP
*.php text

# Perl
*.pl text
*.t text

# Ruby
*.rb text
*.gem -text
*.erb text
Gemfile text
Gemfile.lock text
*.gemspec text

# Python
*.py text
*.pyd -text
*.pyc -text
*.jinja text
*.jinja2 text
*.whl -text
*.egg -text

# .NET
*.asp text
*.aspx text
*.cs text
*.csproj text
*.nuget -text

# WiX
*.wixproj text
*.wxs text
*.wxi text
*.loc text
*.wixlib -text
*.wixobj -text

# NSIST
*.nsi text

# Clojure
*.clj text
*.cljs text
*.edn text

# Java
*.java text
*.class -text
*.jar -text

# Native
*.c text
*.cpp text
*.cxx text
*.o -text
*.lib -text
*.a -text
*.dll -text
*.exe -text
*.cab -text
*.cat -text
*.sys -text
*.so -text
*.in text
*.am text
*.m4 text
*.ac text
*.proj text
*.sln text
Makefile text

# Unix
*.sh eol=lf
*.awk eol=lf
*.sed eol=lf
*.deb -text
*.rpm -text
*.tcl eol=lf

# Windows
*.cmd text
*.bat text
*.ps1 text
*.msi -text
*.msu -text

# SaltStack
*.sls text

# Puppet
*.pp text