Does anyone have any ideas as to why this clone resulted in modified files and how to prevent it? There is a .gitattributes in the tree, which says: * text=auto *.java text diff=java *.html text diff=html *.css text *.js text *.sql text But even then the *.bin files full of non-ascii garbage are impacted?! But I cannot find a difference: root@YYYYYYY /projects/commons-io $ git cat-file -p 7c9cd59c8a00e0bd3f18da42b32cd40024ad1505 | hexdump -C 00000000 a9 fa bf e9 a4 6c a8 ca 0d 0a c1 63 c5 e9 a4 a4 |.....l.....c....| 00000010 a4 e5 0d 0a |....| 00000014 root@YYYYYYY /projects/commons-io $ git cat-file -p 7c9cd59c8a00e0bd3f18da42b32cd40024ad1505 | sha1sum.exe d69820e1282801ccd627e35fb213e8832949c6ac *- root@YYYYYYY /projects/commons-io $ hexdump.exe -C src/test/resources/test-file-x-windows-950.bin 00000000 a9 fa bf e9 a4 6c a8 ca 0d 0a c1 63 c5 e9 a4 a4 |.....l.....c....| 00000010 a4 e5 0d 0a |....| 00000014 root@YYYYYYY /projects/commons-io $ sha1sum.exe src/test/resources/test-file-x-windows-950.bin d69820e1282801ccd627e35fb213e8832949c6ac *src/test/resources/test-file-x-windows-950.bin Deleting the .gitattributes and the checkout -- did not help. No luck deleting the file then restoring it either. Not even git clone git://git.apache.org/commons-io.git --config core.attributesFile=/dev/null fixed it. Details below. -Jason Cygwin test: root@YYYYYYY /projects $ git clone git://git.apache.org/commons-io.git Cloning into 'commons-io'... remote: Counting objects: 21203, done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (3454/3454), done. remote: Total 21203 (delta 10822), reused 21129 (delta 10794) Receiving objects: 100% (21203/21203), 2.51 MiB | 607.00 KiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (10822/10822), done. Checking connectivity... done. root@YYYYYYY /projects $ cd commons-io/ root@YYYYYYY /projects/commons-io $ git status On branch master Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'. Changes not staged for commit: (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed) (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory) modified: src/main/java/org/apache/commons/io/serialization/package.html modified: src/site/xdoc/upgradeto2_3.xml modified: src/test/resources/org/apache/commons/io/FileUtilsTestDataCRLF.dat modified: src/test/resources/test-file-gbk.bin modified: src/test/resources/test-file-iso8859-1-shortlines-win-linebr.bin modified: src/test/resources/test-file-utf8-win-linebr.bin modified: src/test/resources/test-file-windows-31j.bin modified: src/test/resources/test-file-x-windows-949.bin modified: src/test/resources/test-file-x-windows-950.bin no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a") root@YYYYYYY /projects/commons-io $ git rev-parse HEAD c5f2e40e7a8234fe48e08d451d3152ba58a03ac6 root@YYYYYYY /projects/commons-io $ git version git version 2.8.3 root@YYYYYYY /projects/commons-io $ git config --list user.email=jpyeron@xxxxxxxx user.name=Jason Pyeron credential.helper=cache --timeout=9999999999 push.default=simple core.repositoryformatversion=0 core.filemode=true core.bare=false core.logallrefupdates=true core.ignorecase=true remote.origin.url=git://git.apache.org/commons-io.git remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* branch.master.remote=origin branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master $ uname -a CYGWIN_NT-6.1-WOW YYYYYYY 2.5.2(0.297/5/3) 2016-06-23 14:27 i686 Cygwin root@YYYYYYY /projects/commons-io $ Linux test: root@XXXXXX /tmp # git clone git://git.apache.org/commons-io.git Cloning into 'commons-io'... remote: Counting objects: 21203, done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (3454/3454), done. remote: Total 21203 (delta 10822), reused 21129 (delta 10794) Receiving objects: 100% (21203/21203), 2.51 MiB | 176 KiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (10822/10822), done. root@XXXXXX /tmp # cd commons-io/ root@XXXXXX /tmp/commons-io # git status # On branch master # Changes not staged for commit: # (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed) # (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory) # # modified: src/main/java/org/apache/commons/io/serialization/package.html # modified: src/site/xdoc/upgradeto2_3.xml # modified: src/test/resources/org/apache/commons/io/FileUtilsTestDataCRLF.dat # modified: src/test/resources/test-file-gbk.bin # modified: src/test/resources/test-file-iso8859-1-shortlines-win-linebr.bin # modified: src/test/resources/test-file-utf8-win-linebr.bin # modified: src/test/resources/test-file-windows-31j.bin # modified: src/test/resources/test-file-x-windows-949.bin # modified: src/test/resources/test-file-x-windows-950.bin # no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a") root@XXXXXX /tmp/commons-io # git rev-parse HEAD c5f2e40e7a8234fe48e08d451d3152ba58a03ac6 root@XXXXXX /tmp/commons-io # git version git version 1.7.9.6 root@XXXXXX /tmp/commons-io # git config --list core.repositoryformatversion=0 core.filemode=true core.bare=false core.logallrefupdates=true remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* remote.origin.url=git://git.apache.org/commons-io.git branch.master.remote=origin branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master root@XXXXXX /tmp/commons-io # uname -a Linux XXXXXX.internal.pdinc.us 2.6.9-103.ELsmp #1 SMP Fri Dec 9 04:43:08 EST 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux root@XXXXXX /tmp/commons-io #